Les modes de financement des PME wallonnes en forte croissance : analyse de deux cas

Abstract

In 2014, Wallonia has been in a phase of economic recovery after the 2008 crisis. The Walloon economic landscape is mainly composed of small and medium enterprises (SME). If we look deeper, we can see that more than 75% of those SME have a significant growth potential. Although most SME have such growth potential, they are also considered are risky because many of them do not succeed in the long-term. There are many reasons for this but the main ones are the planning of their financial needs in the short and medium-term and the ignorance of all the financial sources available to SME. Bearing that in mind, it is interesting to focus on all the funding solutions available to SME in order to help them in their development and their decision-making process. For all these reasons we have tried to answer the following research questions: “What are the funding solutions available to SME with high growth in Wallonia and under what circumstances shall we use them? In order to answer those questions, we made a list of the main sources of funding available in Wallonia. To understand the impact on the company financial health we provided a theoretical reminder of the main concepts of financial analysis in order. After that, we interviewed two shareholders of two SME based in Wallonia. They shared their experience and opinion on running a business. They also explained and justified their choices in term of funding solutions. Then, we conducted a financial analysis for each company in order to evaluate the financial health and the impact of the funding solutions they have chosen. Eventually we were able to answer the aforementioned research questions. There are many sources of financing for SME in Wallonia and for each financial need, there are several different solutions. Nevertheless, there is no optimal solution though. Choosing the right funding solution depends on the objectives aimed by the SME. It depends also on the mentality of the shareholders of the company. However, the concepts of financial analysis are useful for decision making because they help evaluate the impact of the funding solutions on the financial health of the SME.