Financial institutions, although highly criticized, have been a determining factor so that there have not been many more bankruptcies during 2009. Although the refinancing processes have been very complex, the reality is that most companies have managed to refinance. your debt because financial institutions want to contain their delinquency at all costs. This has definitely contributed to the failure of a corporate catastrophe.
But in 2010 we faced a different scenario, where the rules of the game changed mainly for two reasons: the problems that the Spanish financial system will have and the increased indebtedness of the State.
Regarding the country's indebtedness, it must be taken into account that when the crisis came to Spain, although we had competitiveness problems, we had a relatively little indebted State. Therefore, given the problems of companies and the financial system, the State has been able to support a lot in different ways, more or less successful. However, the country's growing indebtedness means that aid in the short and medium term should be more limited.
Also, for financial institutions, 2010 will be the hardest year due to problems with the asset quality of their balance sheets, difficulties in business and margins, debt maturity obligations and the increase in late payment. In addition, a career in mergers between savings banks has been started to solve the problem, which will have a very high cost for taxpayers and with results that are unknown.
In parallel with all this, there is going to be a phenomenon that I have come to call "trifinance", that is, companies that have already refinanced their debt and, as they are not fulfilling their business plans, are going to have to refinance it again.
Returning to the initial question, what will happen in refinancing and trifinancing in 2010 with the problems of the financial system? The reality is that financial institutions are not going to be able to support companies as much as they did in 2009, and that will presumably cause many problems in refinancing in 2010 and, therefore, in the viability of some Business.
Faced with this situation, companies will have to improve their working capital optimization strategies as well as reinforce their balance sheets through capital increases or divestment of assets.
In conclusion, the problems of the financial system are going to have a great impact on companies that are going to have to count on even less help from financial institutions and are going to have to optimize their working capital as much as possible to be viable.
