SMEs face crisis, joint letter to help Deputy Prime Minister

On June 17, a letter from Li Zibin, president of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association, reached the State Council Vice Premier Ma Kai. The main problem that Li Zibin reflected to Ma Kai in this letter is the survival dilemma faced by the current SMEs, especially the tight capital chain, which makes the operation of many SMEs unsustainable. In this context, the problem of financing and financing is also expensive. More and more prominent.

This is one of the calls for the current SME financing dilemma. Under the cover of the nest, the risk of economic downturn is causing many industries to face the risk of adjustment, and the small and medium-sized enterprises in China’s economic industry are once again facing the financial crisis. The test of the crisis of life and death. Zhou Dewen, president of the Wenzhou SME Development Promotion Association, even made it clear that the current level of crisis has far exceeded that of 2011.

The Economic Observer report found that almost all SMEs across the country are facing the same problem. In the enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, and the central and western regions, the SMEs have tight capital chains, and the problems of financing and financing are almost all. appear. Problems such as tight capital chains but lack of financing and high financing costs have become more prominent at this time. Numerous problems such as the crisis of the guarantee circle and the idling of bill financing have surfaced.

It is reported that the letter of President Li Zibin was subsequently transferred to the central bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and other ministries. Coincidentally, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for Economic Structural Adjustment and Transformation and Upgrading" on July 8, and proposed to optimize the social financing structure and continue to strengthen financial support for key areas and weak links. However, there are still many cruxes surrounding the financing problems of SMEs that have not been resolved. It is still difficult to determine whether SMEs can survive the current crisis.

SMEs are everywhere

"I and many entrepreneurs feel that the crisis is coming." Zhou Dewen, president of the Wenzhou SME Development Promotion Association, said bluntly. Recently, he frequently encountered entrepreneurs who are seeking help, and even some enterprises ran to his office all day to complain: the capital chain is ten, and there is no way to help.

In Zhou Dewen's view, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Wenzhou are facing the crisis of life and death. "SME financing is getting harder and harder. It has not been alleviated in recent years. I personally think that the current crisis is far more than 2011. ”

Judging from the current situation, the situation of entrepreneurs “running the road” has not been seen frequently in newspapers, but Zhou Dewen revealed that the situation of local SMEs’ ​​bankruptcy has not happened, but has not been as high as the public opinion when the financial crisis broke out. Attention.

Figures at the end of last year showed that enterprises in the above-scale enterprises in Wenzhou had a 60% reduction in production and production cuts in 2011, not to mention the situation of other SMEs. And Zhou Dewen believes that there may be serious bankruptcy and "running" tide in the next four months.

"After the end of the year, I obviously feel that there are a lot of luxury cars on the road. Many bosses have no money in their hands. They sell luxury cars to used car dealers. The discount is very strong." This is what Hu Jun has observed recently. phenomenon. Hu Jun is a native of Wenzhou. Another change he has felt in Wenzhou this year is that local house prices have fallen a lot. “In a relatively partial urban area, the price in 2011 has reached more than 40,000, but now it is only about 14,000 yuan.”

At the same time as these abnormal signs, the current financial difficulties of many SMEs. Their access to short-term liquidity support is very limited.

Li Xingwen, owner of Dongguan Yibiqi Hardware Products Industrial Co., Ltd. said that the company's hardware shipments in the past can reach more than 3 million yuan, but due to insufficient liquidity, the current monthly shipments. Can only barely reach about 50% of production capacity.

Regarding the source of funds, Li Xingwen said that the factory is rented, and the property has only worthless production equipment. Therefore, basically no commercial bank loans have been obtained. When the capital turnover is most difficult, it is generally seeking help from friends, and there is no way to go. I had to go to a small loan company, but the cost was too high.

Li Xingwen believes that although the overall export situation is grim, it is felt that there is still demand in the market. "The biggest constraint now is the lack of liquidity. If the constraints in this area can be lifted, it is estimated that the capacity and sales of many SMEs can be increased by 30% to 40%. The tight capital is the biggest problem for the entire SMEs in the Pearl River Delta." Li Xingwen said.

Information from the Guangdong Provincial Small and Medium Enterprise Bureau shows that there are currently more than 800,000 SMEs in Guangdong Province, ranking second in the country. Previously, a survey report by the Guangdong Provincial Financial Office showed that about 70% of the SMEs that had applied for loans to banks in the past three years were mainly used for the long-term development of enterprises and the need to meet the need for expanded reproduction. 59.1% of SMEs used to expand production, accounting for only 23.4% and 13.6% of the technology used to maintain normal production and renewal.

According to the growth rate of enterprise sales, among the small and medium-sized enterprises with medium-speed growth (annual growth rate of 20%-50%) and high-speed growth (annual growth rate of more than 50%), the proportion for expanding production is higher, respectively, 71.4%. And 60.24%. These data show that SMEs, especially high-quality SMEs, have strong demand for funds, and funding issues have become a key factor restricting the growth and development of SMEs.

Bank-enterprise relationship into "boiled fish"

Not long ago, in order to solve the financing problem of SMEs, Wenzhou City once organized a “silver enterprise symposium”. Representatives from 26 local banks in Wenzhou were present at the scene. In the face of the party secretary and mayor, many small and medium-sized enterprises sneaked into the bank. A participant said that "the symposium has become a condemnation of entrepreneurs to banks."

Some entrepreneurs said at the meeting that banks and enterprises should be "fish-water relations". Banks should support enterprise development and release water, but in fact, the two now become "boiled fish". Many companies think banks The company has been forced to a dead end.

Zhou Dewen believes that Wenzhou Bank and Enterprise are currently in the most difficult period. “In order to withdraw funds, the bank defrauded some enterprises and said that they can repay the loans before they continue to lend. However, once the enterprises have completed the loans, the banks will stop lending for various reasons. This phenomenon of pumping and lending is very serious. For these reasons, many Wenzhou enterprises have not yet repaid bank interest. In this situation, banks not only do not support enterprises to tide over the difficulties, but instead massively lend and pressure loans, making the company's capital chain more tense, which is very likely Become the last straw to overwhelm the company." Zhou Dewen said.

The Zhuangji Group in Wenzhou is a typical case. Because banks have taken away loans, Zhuangji Group is now on the verge of bankruptcy. Since 2011, the bank has pumped up 107 million yuan to Zhuangji. Although it has not broken the company's capital chain, it has seriously affected normal production and operation and bank repayment.

Dr. Ding Li, director of the Competitiveness Evaluation Research Center of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, told the Economic Observer that the central and local governments have long been vocal, but the difficulty in financing SME loans is limited. The reason is that the system, the state-owned enterprise is the biological son, of course, get a lot of care.

According to the relevant research conducted by the Guangdong Provincial Financial Office, the financial institutions' financing conditions for SMEs are too harsh. Most SMEs cannot or can hardly meet the rating requirements of existing financial institutions' credit loans, and it is difficult to provide financial institutions. The type of collateral or full collateral, in the process of financing SMEs, there is also the problem that the collateral discount is too low and the number of loans is small.

"Under such a financing environment, SME loans are inevitable, and when there is a financial crisis or financial constraints, SMEs must be injured first and hurt the most." Ding Li said.

In fact, as the banking system that occupies the most resources of China's financial system, in the face of the financial crisis of small and medium-sized enterprises, there are also many difficulties from themselves.

The director of the local shareholding commercial bank office of Wenzhou told the Economic Observer that it is difficult to count the number of enterprises in the past two months. From the perspective of the government statistics, the bankruptcy of enterprises should be calculated according to the cancellation of liquidation, but in fact many enterprises actually It has gone bankrupt, and the business has entered a stagnant state. Such enterprises are dead, but they are not included in the statistics. “There are a lot of such companies, and they have not been concentrated recently.”

It is worth noting that among these "stale" enterprises, some are transferring assets through the relationship between the people and the real resources of the company to achieve the "golden shells" and escape the original debt.

"In recent years, the stage of the deterioration of the environment is very obvious. First of all, there is a problem in the capital chain of a single enterprise, and then there is a systemic risk in the mutual insurance circle. From the perspective of the credit system, the first is the passive credit of the enterprise due to insolvency. Lost, but now the business owners have exposed moral hazard in batches."

The credit crisis in steel trade enterprises, and even the frequent bankruptcy of steel trade enterprises and the “running” tide, are now making commercial banks feel deeply hurt.

According to a report obtained by the Economic Observer, as of June 9, nearly 600 disputes over financial loans for steel traders were held in Shanghai courts, including Bank of Beijing, China Everbright Bank, and Industrial and Commercial Bank. Ten. Some bankers said that the bad debt processing center has been placed in Shanghai because the bad debts mainly consist of steel trade in East China.

Mutual insurance, joint insurance crisis

Compared with the small and medium-sized enterprises, it is difficult to obtain sufficient credit support from the banking system. The phenomenon of mutual insurance and joint insurance that has existed widely in the SME group may expose more risks, and the SME capital chain breaks from a single impact. To a larger area.

Many SMEs have relied on this model to successfully obtain bank loans to solve the problem of corporate capital turnover, but the problem is that the biggest risk of mutual insurance and joint insurance mode is that it is interlocking, broken and looped. A company accident is likely to affect a series of mutual insurance companies associated with it. After the real economy was in trouble, the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises was affected, and the number of enterprises involved increased gradually. This also caused other companies in the mutual insurance and joint insurance circle to be affected by the “sit-and-sit” and the capital chain of more enterprises was affected. In addition, a large number of enterprises have increased their “contingent debt ratio” due to “mutual security” and have also become passive in other financing channels.

An industry insider said that as long as it is a bank-funded enterprise, 90% of them participate in mutual insurance and joint insurance, and on average, each company has 5 to 7 mutual insurance and joint insurance units. In the context of the tightening of bank credit and the spread of corporate credit crisis, many companies willing to join the mutual protection relationship have retired.

Mr. Wang is the head of a well-performing shoe material market in Zhejiang. This company is a member of a huge mutual insurance relationship. The twists and turns, the distant guarantee relationship has caused it to be involved in the crisis of a guarantee circle.

Mr. Wang’s company has a loan of 500 million yuan, and 99% has adopted the form of mutual insurance. Therefore, it has established mutual security relationship with many companies. Among them, A company guaranteed 100 million yuan, and company B guaranteed 50 million yuan. Unfortunately, these two companies closed down last year.

It is understood that guarantee loans are generally undertaken by enterprises between peers, referred to as “mutual insurance”. The joint guarantee loan refers to three or more small and medium-sized enterprises, which voluntarily form a guarantee consortium. After one of the enterprises applies for a loan from the bank, all members of the joint insurance body must bear the joint and several liability for repayment.

Banks also encourage SMEs to participate in mutual insurance and joint insurance, which has reduced the risk of banks to a certain extent. However, when the external environment of the economic operation turned around, banks borrowed frequently, and many enterprises involved in mutual insurance and joint insurance were caught in the quagmire.

“At the beginning of 2012, the problem company went bankrupt, and the boss ran away. I saw the company’s boss for six months. I finally had no way. The bank sued, the court closed the account, and the enterprise went bankrupt.” Mr. Wang said, B company The same is true.

The crisis was transmitted to Mr. Wang like a domino.

In the second half of last year, Mr. Wang had been dealing with the secured debts, raising funds around, and finally blocked the money. In his words, he "had never slept a safe feeling."

In the past few years, the risk of mutual insurance loans has been seriously neglected. A large number of enterprises in Wenzhou have invested in real estate and mining industries, which are relatively popular in the market, and the short-term long-term investment has increased significantly. Therefore, with the implementation of the state's macroeconomic regulation and control and the tightening of monetary policy, many enterprises have problems in their production and operation. The cooling of the real estate market has also led to a significant decline in the company's collateralized assets. As a result, the bank's additional loans to enterprises have shrunk dramatically, which has once again increased the tension of the corporate capital chain.

Another reason cited is the 4 trillion stimulus policy. "4 trillion voted down. During that time, banks were loosened, many companies over-invested, or excessive speculation. Now the big currency environment has changed, causing financial difficulties and even bankruptcy," said another entrepreneur in Wenzhou, Mr. Li.

Under the dual pressure of the domestic and international economic situation, mutual insurance and joint insurance began to become a haze over many small and medium-sized enterprises. Many enterprises chose to "escape" in order to avoid falling into the circle of mutual security again.

"Now, Wenzhou's business owners have become cautious, doing business mutual insurance, less and less guarantees. So like me, there are many people who have escaped from Wenzhou during the Chinese New Year." Mr. Li said with a smile During the Spring Festival and the May Day holiday, he chose to "escape" Wenzhou, the Spring Festival went to the United States, and May Day stayed in Beijing. In fact, in addition to the common financing methods such as mutual insurance and joint guarantee, it is difficult to continue to operate. Other financing methods that have been applied to SMEs also expose risks.

A senior executive in Wenzhou, who is preparing to go public, told the Economic Observer that at present, a lot of money in the bank has not entered the real economy, and more is the circulation of bills. “Compared with corporate financing, it may be a more serious problem. If it breaks out, it will be very big. Now banks rarely take money, they are all in the form of bills. This leads to the company’s lack of cash at hand. The bill you gave me, I gave him, formed a triangular debt, and each other was arrears, all of which were paper wealth. Moreover, most of the notes issued by banks were not long, and the validity period was mostly about one month. The bills kept flowing between enterprises. After the company gets the bill, it will only expire in a day or two. But even then, the bank will not exchange it, but only replace it with a new one." This situation also causes some companies to be not short of money, but There is only one pile of bills in hand, and there is no cash. It is completely impossible to buy products and pay wages. Such a situation is common throughout the country.

“From the perspective of our regulatory authorities, bank acceptance bills are designed primarily to facilitate corporate settlement, but they have become a means of disguised financing for companies. Banks also collect margins and increase intermediary business income.” Wenzhou Central Bank System A person told the Economic Observer that "a general enterprise must issue a VAT invoice for issuing a bank acceptance bill. The original bank is relatively loose. It only needs to provide a copy of the VAT invoice, so a VAT invoice is often copied. This time, it can be opened in several banks. Now this kind of thing is almost impossible. Therefore, the bill will now have a short-term impact on the flow of funds, but in the long run, it can also be used. Excessive moisture is also a good thing.

SMEs’ ​​help

At the time of the capital chain break crisis, SMEs can only turn their attention to the government.

At the end of last year, Zhuangji Group submitted the "Emergency Report" to the main leaders of Wenzhou City in the form of the company's red-headed documents. It said that the shipowners abandoned the ship, bank loans, and mutual trust enterprises' trust crisis. The three superimposed the group to the dilemma. Get help and support from the government.

In fact, many local governments, including Wenzhou, have gradually come forward to coordinate banks and enterprises, hoping to help companies overcome the immediate crisis and demand that banks not be able to lend money. However, in the eyes of industry insiders, such administrative orders for commercial banks cannot completely resolve the current general crisis.

Ye Suisheng, deputy director of the Financial Services Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government, said that the support for small and medium-sized enterprises now relies mainly on microfinance companies. However, the size of microfinance companies is not large enough, so financial support for SMEs is limited. In order to meet the funding needs of SMEs as much as possible and expand the scale of financing, only the number of loan companies will continue to increase and expand, and their scale will be expanded.

Li Zibin also told the Economic Observer that it is precisely the current special macroeconomic situation that makes the survival pressure of SMEs even greater, highlighting the urgency of solving the financing difficulties of SMEs. This has become his original intention to reflect this issue to the State Council.

A person from the Small and Medium Enterprises Association said, "In the first half of this year, Li Zibin and other relevant personnel of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association led a team to more than 10 provinces and cities to conduct research, and held discussions with local government departments and enterprises to understand the current living conditions of SMEs.

According to the above-mentioned person, there are currently 14 million SMEs, and about 10% of them can obtain financing from financial systems such as banks. These SMEs that have received financing have already experienced “funding difficulties and high financing costs”, while the remaining 90% Even the financial institutions of banks and other financial institutions can't enter, let alone the problem of "difficult and expensive."

It is worth mentioning that the tax burden problem is also another factor affecting the SME capital chain. “In general, a company needs external financial support during its business development and expansion. The current shortage of funds for SMEs, in addition to the macroeconomic situation changes, resulting in lower revenues and tight capital chains, high taxes and fees also lead to tight funding for SMEs. Another reason, statistics show that the cost of taxes and fees for SMEs has reached 50% of its revenue," said the SME Association.

Li Zibin believes that although the problem of heavy tax burden has always existed in small and medium-sized enterprises, this problem is more obvious this year, especially this year, the overall growth rate of local government tax revenue has slowed down, thus increasing non-tax revenue, many local governments Non-tax revenues have increased significantly. Data from the first half of this year showed that tax revenues in some places increased by only about 10%, but non-tax revenues increased by more than 30%. Some of the previous fee reduction policies were no longer implemented, and these were transferred to the tax burden of SMEs. Above cost.

In the context of increasing tax burden costs, the capital chain of SMEs is even more tense. However, the problems accumulated from the financial system are also beginning to be revealed at this time. The problem that the real economy is difficult to obtain financial support is also particularly serious this year. Therefore, SMEs need to fill blood.

Li Zibin’s proposals to the State Council include the mechanism of continuing to transform banks, providing more financial resources for SMEs; issuing small financial institutions, including village banks and community banks; allowing more private capital to enter the financial system; Including the securities market, PE/VC market, property rights trading market, financial leasing market and other capital markets.

It is reported that this letter was subsequently approved and submitted to the central bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and other ministries and commissions.