Credit Guarantee Fund support boosted SME growth, ISO rankings show

THE Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) support, which came into effect in March last year, increased financing possibilities of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s (ISO) Second Top 500 Industrial Enterprises, composed of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), helping them overtake major companies in profitability.

With the support of TL 218 billion ($45.64 billion) provided through the CGF loan, the small-sized enterprises displayed their best performance in recent years despite increasing their debts. In 2017, sales from production rose by 30.9 percent to TL 107.6 billion with the effect of the increase in foreign exchange rates that increased export revenues.

According to the ISO’s survey on “Turkey’s Second Top 500 Industrial Enterprises, operating profit in the Second Top 500 grew by 43.9 percent in 2017, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) by 49.3 percent, and the sum of pre-tax earnings and losses by 67.2 percent.

In the First Top 500 that was announced at the end of May, operating profit increased by 34.8 percent, EBITDA by 24.4 percent, and the sum of pre-tax earnings and losses by 40.7 percent. The total operating profit of the Second Top 500 rose from TL 8.7 billion in 2016 to TL 12.5 billion. The ratio of operating profit to net sales increased from 9.4 percent to 10.3 percent.

With the impact of the CGF, the ratio of financing expenditures to operating profit in the Second Top 500 dropped from 50.6 percent to 42.8 percent, but the debt burden increased.

Especially the increase in financial liabilities was faster than the increase in total debts.

The total financial debts which stood at TL 36.1 billion in 2016, surged by 50.9 percent in 2017, reaching TL 54.5 billion. Meanwhile, the share of financial debts in total debts rose from 58.1 percent in 2016 to 58.9 percent in 2017.

The share of short-term financial debts in total financial debts, on the other hand, dropped from 48.4 percent to 40.5 percent.

The share of equity in the resource structure, which comes to the fore among the most important indicators of the financial structures of the institutions and reflects the distribution of borrowing and equity capital, fell to the bottom.

The share of total debts maintained a course around 61.2 to 60.5 percent in 2013-2016 period, reaching 66.2 percent in 2017. The share of equity was down to 33.8 percent, the lowest level in the last 10 years.