Publication CEPYME500 2017

#BME
Why are we not used to seeing SMEs listed on the
stock market?
Companies in Spain have traditionally tried to solve their
financing issues without having to open their capital to
third parties.
Many of them are family businesses that have preferred
not to share their capital or decisions, even at the expense
of being more dependent on credit financing.
The problem arises when, as occurred in the recent
financial crisis, banks cannot provide small businesses
with the loans they demand. At that precise moment,
the leap to the market cannot be improvised: a change
in business culture is necessary.
Do you think Spanish companies need to gain size
to be more competitive? How can CEPYME500 help
companies achieve this goal?
Absolutely. The correlation between size and competitiveness
is unquestionable, especially in sectors such as
manufacturing.
For instance, German industrial companies have three
times more employees than Spanish companies and
that fact is reflected in their productivity. CEPYME500 will
assist proactively to bring companies of the same or different
sector into contact in order to generate synergies,
associations, common projects or even mergers.
Do you think that the 500 SMEs that make up
CEPYME500 can serve as a growth and management
model for other companies?
This careful selection has resulted in a set of companies
that are especially focused on growth, innovation and
internationalisation, and have a sound financial structure
as well as the capacity to generate recurring profit.
Do you reckon Spanish medium-sized companies
are at the level of their European counterparts?
As previously mentioned, we must focus on the size
of companies and on their capacity to attract investors
for their projects, so that they do not exclusively
depend on themselves or on bank loans to grow.
Spanish companies need to match their European
competitors in these two areas. However, the flexibility,
dynamism and internationalisation capacity of our
companies exceeds the European average. By reducing
some regulatory barriers, they could become
better contenders.
How can we promote the development of SMEs
in Spain? Which aspects do you think they should
improve: internationalisation, innovation, taxation,
etc.?
Support programmes for internationalisation and
innovation are paramount and public administrations
have striven unceasingly towards that goal in this
area.
Nevertheless, if our true objective is for Spanish
companies to be more innovative, more dynamic and
have more growing potential, consideration of private
investment is a must.
In this context, decisive action by economic authorities
is essential to the investment boost in SMEs capital,
in the form of attractive tax incentives for those
who invest in these companies.
This strategy has yielded notable results in other
countries, such as Great Britain or France, where
SMEs are larger and more competitive nowadays.
Therefore, many of them are model companies and, as
a result, other companies will follow their steps.
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CEPYME500 | 013