HOW TO MANAGE CORPORATE AND SME DEBT POST-COVID-19

COVID-19 has driven European debt to a new record high with SMEs being particularly hard hit. And while the governments provide support schemes to sustain businesses, the liabilities continue to rise.

Executive Summary

Euro-area companies added more than €400billion in debt over the first half of 2020, compared with €289billion throughout the whole of 2019, according to European Union data.

The European Commission has warned that “servicing debt could be challenging particularly in sectors impacted by the pandemic in a more lasting way.”Under these circumstances, firms must now answer a critical question: How to drastically improve the management of their corporate and SME debt portfolios?Our latest report is showing the way for lending institutions on how to implement a robust and tested corporate and SME debt workout framework to avoid failure.

This report will:

• Guide lending institutions to deal with non-performing loans (NPLs) extended to corporations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
• Help stakeholders implement a robust and tested corporate and SME debt workout framework to try to rescue failing enterprises
• Provide lenders and investors assurance that, if a borrowing enterprise runs into financial difficulty, a proven methodology is in place that will both protect creditor rights and allow a viable enterprise to resolve its indebtedness as quickly and inexpensively as possible