Signs of an economic recovery seem to be feeding through into increased confidence among chief financial officers of some of the UK’s largest companies, according to the latest quarterly survey from Deloitte, which has put the appetite for risk at a six-year high.
The findings, reported in Monday’s business section of the Telegraph, found that 54% of financial officers believed it was a good time to take risk onto their companies’ balance sheets.
This is all well and good, given that many of these companies have been sitting on an estimated stash of £700 billion in cash, but what about the SME sector?
There has been no sign of any improvement in lending to this sector as we have heard repeatedly in recent weeks, yet they are seen as essential to a sustained economic recovery.
So what can they do if they don’t have either the reserves or the borrowing capability to take to take advantage of the signs of recovery?
Many SMEs have been hanging on, managing cash flow and paying down debt wherever possible but if they are to grow they need to make sure they are in the best possible shape and this may be exactly the time when a restructuring expert should be called in to take a thorough look at their business model and whether it is possible to free up some of the cash currently going to creditors.
Quick, skilled teamwork by turnaround professionals does not have to be used only when a company is insolvent. The techniques can also be used to put SMEs into the best position to plan for growth. But they need a consensual approach involving all stakeholders as we say in this article in the Turnaround Supplement just published by the Daily Telegraph here.
Menu