Hardship cases rarely apply for Covid 19 credits
A new survey conducted by the offer portal GRYPS shows new data on the situation of small and medium enterprises in the Corona month of April: 14.4 percent expect bankruptcy: nevertheless, especially hardship cases do not apply for Covid 19 loans.
The Corona crisis poses existential challenges for SMEs in Switzerland. 33 percent of SMEs suffered a drop in sales of more than 75 percent in April 2020 and 14.4 percent expect to go bankrupt in the next 6 months due to Corona. This is shown by the second Survey of GRYPS offer portal on the economic impact of the Corona crisis on small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland. This was conducted online on May 5 and 6, 2020, with 140 SMEs participating. Of these, most are small companies with up to 50 employees.
Few Covid 19 loans by vulnerable SMEs.
Strikingly, 80 percent of SMEs surveyed that fear bankruptcy due to the current situation have not applied for a Covid 19 bridge loan. Most companies with bankruptcy fears fall into the 1-10 employee category and are in the service and hospitality industries. "It turns out that it's the smallest service and hospitality firms that don't feel they can repay a loan. Here, a massive wave of bankruptcies will roll towards us," says Gaby Stäheli, co-CEO of GRYPS Offertenportal.
Other results in the survey
Compared with the previous month, there was a slight reduction in layoffs. While 15 percent planned or already carried out layoffs in March, the figure fell to 12 percent in April. Overall, 35 percent of SMEs surveyed have applied for a loan. Of these, however, 12 percent have not yet taken advantage of the bridging loan. 65 percent of SMEs have not applied for a bridging loan at all to date. And in terms of rent reductions, 12.6% have been able to agree on a deferral or temporary reduction of rent, while 7.5% are still planning to do so. Interestingly, the data analysis revealed that SMEs with bankruptcy fears are not in these two categories.
At just over 55 percent, a majority of SMEs believe that the crisis will last until 2021 and then pick up. Just under 27 percent think a crisis lasting several years is likely. Only just over 18 percent think that with the opening, the economy will quickly grow to pre-Corona levels.
Home office experiences remain
21 percent of the SMEs surveyed have now introduced home office for the first time and intend to continue offering it to employees in the future. And a majority of the SMEs surveyed have introduced new forms of communication such as online collaboration and video conferencing. 8 percent have added to their product portfolio and 4 percent have expanded to e-commerce.
