London Stock Exchange selects 13 Catalan SMEs among 1,000 most inspiring in Europe

Brussels (CNA).- The London Stock Exchange has selected 13 Catalan SMEs among a list of those assessed as the most inspiring in all of Europe. This list is made up of small and medium companies that “have a more pronounced growth in the EU”, explained the Director of Government Relations at the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Solano. The report was presented in Brussels, and two of the Catalan SMEs that made the list attended the event, KpSport and Liquats Vegetals. This spotlight on SMEs in Europe has the objective of helping small and medium companies receive funding, which has “always been a little difficult”, according to Director of Operations at KpSport, David Pons. It is very important to give SMEs “visibility and support” in order to be able to create jobs, according to Solano, and also important to present this report to the European Parliament. Also, liberal CDC MEP Ramon Tremosa emphasises “the importance of promoting the initiative on a European level.”

Most of the selected companies “are very small, largely unknown but are really creating jobs and wealth”, stated Solano from Brussels, where the report was presented. Two of the Catalan SMEs, KpSport and Liquats Vegetals, attended the event and hope that it may serve as a platform for financing.

“Funding has always been a little difficult for us”, admitted David Pons, Director of Operations at KpSport, a distribution company dedicated to importing technology products, which currently has 60 employees. “Coming here means we can have more options to go knocking on other doors that can continue to help us grow, because in the end we want to grow, we are a company with ambition”, he said.

“It is very important that these companies have access to the money they need to continue to innovate, grow and create jobs”, noted Xavier Solano, adding: “We realised that they find it difficult to get financing and there is an overdependence on bank financing”. This is why, according to Solano, the list of the 1,000 most innovative European SMEs can be useful, so that private investors become involved in businesses that “perhaps until now have not had access to investment and capital other than through banking”.

“What we do is identify companies and give them as much full visibility and support as we can, so that they can continue to grow and create jobs”, affirmed Solano. In addition, he noted it is necessary that “investors be aware that there are great companies in Europe to take into account when making their investment strategies”.

“It is a reality that in Catalonia and of course in Spain it costs a lot for small and medium enterprises to obtain financing”, stated the CFO of Liquats Vegetals, Jordi Montserrat. The company, which is engaged in the production of soy, oat and rice vegetable drinks, has existed for 25 years and has 150 direct workers, and is now studying “a new possible growth”. “The fact of being able to access private capital could be very interesting”, Montserrat added.

Liquats Vegetals wants to undertake “significant expansion” in the next three to four years, by constructing 16,000 square metres of premises and expanding “to other countries and continents”. Because of this, being on the list of 1,000 companies drawn up by the London Stock Exchange is “an honour” and an opportunity for them. “Investors are the only ones who take the risk, apart from the entrepreneur himself”, recalled Xavier Solano, adding that banks “ask for a series of collateral payments to offset the risk”, which SMEs sometimes can’t provide.

From the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Solano has also recognised the importance of presenting the report to the European Parliament, where politicians have to realise, he said, that Europe “has fantastic, little-known companies that need help”. “Politicians must understand that they are the only ones that can create the wealth and jobs that Europe needs for the future”, he noted. “It is important to see that these companies, also in Catalonia, are doing a great job”, he added.

In fact, the CDC MEP Ramon Tremosa has been, along with other Dutch and British MEPs, one of those who has supported the event, which included the participation of the Commissioner of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Union capitals, Jonathan Hill. “Unfortunately, the European financial markets are still very fragmented, it is difficult for a Catalan SME to get credit in another country”, lamented Tremosa.

According to the liberal CDC MEP, “we must continue to promote initiatives that serve to separate the economy from the financial sectorat a European level”. “Spain, unfortunately, is one of the countries that is most dependent on bank credit and where there are few financing alternatives, including the stock exchange”, he stated. For Tremosa, “the family business, which is fantastic, needs finance to grow, to gain in size, to go out and to export” and therefore “urgently” needs alternatives to bank financing. “The London Stock Exchange is the largest in Europe and it is good that it continues to promote projects in Parliament”, he emphasised.

Among the Catalan companies selected there is also Fractus, Casa Batlló, Grupo Catalan, Holaluz.com and Quironsalud.