Tribune. The question of how to exit the state guaranteed loans (PGE) system becomes more and more pressing as the end of the crisis approaches: to leave, to invest and to hire, the companies that have benefited from the PGEs. need visibility.
To be sure, companies, although facing a new wave of restrictions at the start of the year, did not make massive use of EMPs in the first months of 2021. The total amount of EMPs fell from € 128 billion to mid -December 2020 to 135 billion euros at the beginning of April 2021. This means that the EMPs granted at the beginning of 2020 have made it possible to constitute a safety cushion from which companies still benefit today.
But their weight remains significant, while they constitute liabilities without assets that do not create value for companies and their reimbursement can weigh on the investment capacity of companies.
Uncertainties on the terms of exit from PEGs
When the device was launched in March 2020, the EMP mechanism provided for the first repayments to be made one year after the date of granting of the loan. Given the health situation, the repayment schedule has been relaxed by Bercy, which has opened up the possibility for companies wishing to do so to start repaying only from April 2022.
The government is very flexible with regard to debtor companies, and does not seem in a hurry to clarify the terms of exit from the support mechanisms. He is torn between two objectives. On the one hand, to spare the public accounts by making the beneficiary companies bear the reimbursement of EMPs and limit the bill for non-reimbursements, already estimated at between 5 and 7 billion euros by the Banque de France.
On the other hand, to avoid at all costs that the exit of the EMPs does not block the recovery of the French economy by weighing on the finances of the beneficiary companies. On this crest line, the shift in deadlines is a logical short-term solution, but it does not change the fundamental problem of EMPs, and prolongs the uncertainty of companies as to the terms of exit.
A brake on the post-crisis rebound for companies
When it comes to EMPs, not all companies are in the same boat. If some of them have consumed cash, 70% of VSE-SMEs who have subscribed to an EMP have not or little used the funds, according to the Bpifrance barometer of February 2021. These companies are therefore today able to repay their loans.
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