Yohann Tritz 06:21, April 28, 2022

Conflict in Ukraine, rising energy prices, raw materials, inflation... Companies are clearly being hit hard in 2022. And to top it all off, companies will have to repay the state-guaranteed loan taken out during the month of June. the Covid to stay afloat.

In France, the industrial sector is hit hard by the war in Ukraine... Already in difficulty with the Covid for two years, companies are now in the red... In addition, we will have to start reimbursing from the month in June the Loans Guaranteed by the State contracted during the health crisis...

Because in June, companies will have to repay, in one go, at least a sixth of the sums borrowed during the Covid.

A state-guaranteed loan contracted by Patrick Bellity, owner of Sifa Fonderie in Orléans.

The reimbursement of the PGE would, in the long term, put his company in danger if the situation does not change: "When the PGE was set up, we said to ourselves great, we will be able to spend this period serenely and then when it starts again We're going to do it again. In fact, none of that, the situation is worse. We're going through crisis after crisis, and now we have to repay the PGE. We're going to repay it once, and then the situation is the same for months, months and more months. We will soon have no more cash". 

More and more business failures in France

The boss of this factory is forced to resort to partial unemployment.

Its activity has been reduced since the war in Ukraine, once again after the Covid.

But he does not want to be too alarmist: "In 40 years of career, I have never experienced this. But we are working to save our business". 

The president of Sifa Fonderie hopes that the resilience plan put in place by the State last March will have effects.

In the first quarter of 2022, the number of business failures increased by 35% compared to the same period last year.

A figure on the rise, because the boost from the State is running out of steam.

But so far, the default level has not returned to its 2019 level and remains well below. 

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A loss of 15 to 20 billion euros for the State

Rather, the state has an interest in companies remaining solvent.

Companies unable to pay could cause the State to lose a lot, as Christian Saint-Etienne, an economist specializing in industry explains: “There is a third of the companies which took out the loan during the Covid and which contracted to avoid sinking. It is for them that it is problematic. Of the 190 billion euros of loan contracted with the bank, and therefore 90% insured by the State then, it is estimated that there will be a loss between 15 and 20 billion". 

A huge hole in the state coffers.

But solutions are put in place to enable companies to get by.

In particular, they can ask the credit mediator on a case-by-case basis or to spread their reimbursement over ten years.

But for the moment, very few files have been filed.