MADRID | The newly created Alternative Fixed Income Market (MARFI, in its Spanish initials) for small and medium size enterprises (SME), that the government wants to have ready, could mobilize around 1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) within its first year of existence, says Axesor. The company, specialized in information and credit risk management, adds that the yield could stand somewhere between 6 and 10%.
Europe should go for micro solutions
LONDON | If more than 99% of all European businesses are, in fact, small businesses that shape the true back-bone of the European economy, European governments are clearly missing the chance to generate at least a few millions of new jobs.
British AAA in doubt as high street turns ‘zombie’ under insolvency pressures
LONDON | The sterling on Tuesday was mostly unmoved by the light controversy between some of the top ratings agencies regarding the UK’s triple A qualification on its government debt issuance. That is the highest grade, only to be found over the so-called core European countries. A day had barely passed after Standard & Poor’s [...]
Over 10pc of British small companies planned to close during last quarter
LONDON | Even before the office for national statistics released its estimates of a UK economy in continued slow-motion deterioration, 84 percent of small and medium size companies’ decision makers said they were concerned about the British economic climate, with 38% being very concerned. A new SME Risk Index from global insurer Zurich published Friday showed that [...]
Growth in UK economy depends on 5pc core small businesses
LONDON | Less than 5 percent of all small businesses play the biggest role in boosting the UK economy, a new report by Santander Corporate Banking has concluded. The study, released Tuesday, also indicated that this same small fraction of SMEs accounts for two-thirds of all private-sector employment. Santander analysts found that a very limited number of [...]
China’s PMI: reading between the lines
BEIJING | The question on whether China’s economy is expanding or contracting is like answering whether the glass is half full or half empty. The positive official reading signals that there’s no need to worry. With its PMI index calculated after a sample of more than 800 big (and state-owned) companies, PMI is on the rise [...]
UK emerging SMEs to receive EU funds
LONDON | The UK’s Coalition government launched Tuesday a new joint enterprise capital fund that will invest at least £40 million in high-growth potential small and medium sized companies in the country. The fund is called Notion Capital and is the eleventh and largest finance support programme for SMEs in the European Union. According to the [...]
Wednesday’s graphic: the rat behind US employment numbers
Barclays analysts’ sent a warning about expectations over US employment data, which experts do not quite think are accurate. Ahead of the publication of official figures next Friday, here is a line we mustn’t forget: the white line depicting small and medium companies’ intentions of hiring. “Upcoming employment data could reveal the actual situation of [...]
British SMEs feel down: they might be right
LONDON |Â Sentiment among the UK’s small and medium-sized manufacturers fell for the third quarter running in the three months to January, as output stagnated and orders decreased against a backdrop of heightened economic and political uncertainty, the CBI said. Of the 350 respondents to the CBI’s latest quarterly SME Trends Survey published on Monday, 26% [...]
