Credit Guarantee and the Impact in Financial Structure of the Portuguese SMEs

The aim of this work is to show the relevance of guarantees provided by the Mutual Credit Guarantee System (MCGS—the Portuguese Society of Credit Guarantee (SPGM)) as an instrument used in the financing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially in restructuring Long-Term Debt (LTD) and bank loans. The study provides empirical evidence and puts forward an explanatory model of the influence of the mutual credit guarantees on the financing of SMEs. Using data obtained from the MCGS, for the CAE (economic activity) 412 (construction of buildings, which is the sector with the greatest number of companies seeking this type of financing) and the SABI database (system for analysis of Iberian financial statements), a multiple regression model was made, studying the impact that mutual guarantees have in the financial structure of the SMEs. The results obtained show that LTD financing is positively influenced by the guarantees provided by the MCGS to SMEs as it allows greater debt capacity, especially in the medium and long term, for firms that usually cannot obtain this type of financing. The results also suggest that this type of guarantees creates an environment of confidence among all stakeholders involved, showing that both in terms of overall capital structure and in terms of merely financial credit, the response from the explanatory variables in the models was consistent with the beginning expectations, that the financial gap has been reduced with the contribution of mutual guarantees in the financing process.