Survey: nearly 50 pc of Hungarian SMEs made investments in past two years

In the past two years some 47 percent of SMEs concluded investment projects worth at least 10 million forints (EUR 27,000), Magyar Bankholding, which is overseeing a tie-up that is set to become Hungary’s second-biggest commercial lender, said on Monday based on a survey from NMS Hungary.

Companies were most active in the construction sector where 52 percent of them had at least one investment project and 17 percent had several. In the industrial sector 39 percent of companies made one investment and over 25 percent made more than one.

Investments were fewer in retail and services. In the retail sector 67 percent of respondents made no big investment while in the services sector the share was 61 percent.

The main investment goals were capacity expansion, replacement of old machines and equipment, and technological development. The expansion of business activity and product portfolio was also a business goal in one-fifth of investments.

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Survey respondents said that

82 percent used their own funds for the projects and only 8 percent used loans from the free market.

Some 60 percent of respondents kept the combined value of their investments below 100 million forints and 14 percent said that they had carried out more than one investment project.

NMS surveyed 500 SMEs with an annual revenue of at least 300 million forints between the end of September and the start of October.

As we wrote today, Finance Minister Mihály Varga announced a tender for 100 billion forints (EUR 273m) in European Union and state funding to support technology upgrades, productivity and competitiveness at SMEs in a video message posted on Facebook.