The price crisis begins to stress the coffers of many companiesespecially the smaller ones. Costs rise, the price of money becomes more expensive (and will go higher) and payers seek to make time gold. Specifically the time of its collectors. And it is that the companies with activity in Spain are delaying your payment terms, reversing a downward trend, in which during recent years these had been reduced. This is confirmed by a report published this Sunday by the Cepyme employers’ association, which analyzes the accounts of small and medium-sized companies during the first half of the year and notes that, although collection times are taking longer, for the moment there is no widespread risk of non-payment.
Treasury tensions do not weigh the same on the shoulders of a large corporation as on those of a small one and in Spain, a country of SMEs, the increase in payment terms is a problem for more than one company. These are currently in the case of small companies (between 10 and 49 workers) in 84.7 days, between the time these firms issue the invoice and the recipient of the product or service pays it. This period has increased by 7.3% in the last year. In the case of medium-sized companies (between 50 and 249 workers), these terms have remained more stable and have barely registered an increase of 0.5%, up to 84.8 days.
Delinquency, unlike what it meant in the 2008 crisis, is not a problem. for now According to Cepyme data, 88.6% of SME invoices were paid within the agreed time or with a delay of less than 30 days. Other indicators, of the weakest links in the payment chain, such as los autonomousbegin to reveal negative symptoms. According to the latest ATA barometer -linked to Cepyme through the large employer CEOE-, 41.6% of self-employed workers claim to suffer some type of delinquency, a percentage that has increased by almost 10 points during the last year.
Indebtedness on the rise
Cepyme data does not reveal cracks, for the moment, in the payment chain. However, the rising debt ratios, in a context in which central banks are making money more expensive by raising rates, they can wear down that percentage of punctuality. “We must not forget that, at a level of debt that is still high and, moreover, growing, an additional burden will be added to business accounts due to the increase in interest rates,” they recall from the employers’ association.
The debt ratio -measured as total liabilities in relation to net worth- has risen for four consecutive quarters and closed at 100% in July. In other words, SMEs currently have as much debt as equity, although debt among small ones is growing twice as much as among medium-sized ones. “This is the highest level since 2018. and it is 12.7 percentage points higher than a year before”, highlight the authors of the report.
stagnant profitability
The Cepyme report detects an increase in sales of 14%, compared to the previous year. Something that has not happened since the 1980s and that is explained by the escalation of inflation. That is to say, it is not that they sell much more, but rather that due to the rise in prices, their billings are at record figures. Although, on the other hand, your expense account is also going up. And it is that the turnover of medium-sized companies grows more than small ones.
However, in the same way that revenues increase, so do costs, which in the last year have grown 24% overall. Particularly noteworthy is the Energywhat it has become more expensive 113.7% in the last year for SMEs. And transport, to a lesser extent, but has also grown, specifically 20.5%. It is the largest increase in two decades.
what leaves one net return on assets, that is, the ability to generate profits of SMEs, stagnant at 2.8%; a level very similar to that of a year earlier and that is lower than any data recorded between 2016 and 2020. According to the employer’s analysis, this profitability deficit compared to pre-pandemic levels is due “55% to the lower level of activity caused by the measures to combat the pandemic and the still incomplete recovery and the remaining 45% to inflation which, by triggering costs, affected margins”, according to the authors of the study.