Chapter 6 - SME Corporation Malaysia

CHAPTER 694 National SME Development Council SME ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10Enhancing Access to FinancingVenture CapitalOutstanding investments by VentureCapitals (VCs) increased by 34%year-on-year from the RM1.9 billioninvested as at end-2008 to RM2.6billion as at end-2009, based on theSecurities Commission MalaysiaReport 2009. In 2009, RM597 millionwere invested in 99 investeecompanies, resulting to a total of445 investee companies as at end-2009 (2008: RM477 million, 134investee companies). The totalcommitted funds for venture capitalinvestment had grown 17%year-on-year to RM5.4 billion as at 31December 2009, compared to RM4.6billion in 2008 largely due to highercontribution by Government Agenciesamounting to RM2.8 billion in 2009.• Agrobank was given an additionalallocation of RM300 million underthe Second Economic StimulusPackage to assist mainly farmers,small enterprises and pettytraders. In particular, retrenchedworkers during the economicdownturn was given anopportunity to venture intobusiness particularly in theagriculture and resource-basedactivities. As at end-June 2010,14,929 companies have benefitedfrom RM287.8 million in loansdisbursed. The microcredit facilitycalled Micro ESP-i (PinjamanMikro ESP-i) is collateral-andguarantor-freefinancing withmaximum amount and tenure ofup to RM50,000 and five years,respectively;• Tabung Ekonomi KumpulanUsaha Niaga (TEKUN) was givenan allocation of RM50million under the SecondEconomic Stimulus Package toassist small entrepreneurs. Thepopular fund was fully disbursedin 2009 and had benefited 5,032entrepreneurs; and• Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (a nongovernmentalorganisation) wasalso been given an allocation ofRM100 million to harness thepotential of self-employmentamong the poor households andlow-income in the urban areas.As at end-June 2010, 32,274poor had benefited from RM102.5million funds disbursed.There was a discerning trend towardsinvestments in new growth areas,where 25.2% of total investmentswere made in life sciences subsectors(2008: 18%), 18.7% in themanufacturing sector (2008: 27.4%),17.4% in the ICT (2008: 18.5%) and38.7% in other sectors such aseducation, electicity and powergeneration and logistics (2008:36.1%). In terms of life-cycle of theinvestee companies, 53% of theRM597.3 million was invested in 49investee companies at the expansion/growth stage, while 21.1% were forinvestee companies at the early andstart-up stage. Total amount investedin companies at the seed stagecontinued to be comparatively small,representing only 3% of totalinvestments made in 2009.