Florida CFOs face credit squeeze
Tampa Bay Business Journal
A survey by Grant Thornton LP found that nearly three of every four top financial executives at Florida companies said credit is tougher to come by now than one year ago.
Seventy-four percent of the executives said it was more difficult to get credit now, while 53 percent said credit costs have increased. However, 87 percent of the executives said they are able to access alternative financing structures and have not had to return to bank credit, a release from Grant Thornton said.
The accounting and consulting firm surveyed 37 chief financial officers and senior comptrollers from public and private companies with headquarters in Florida. The survey, conducted from Sept. 8 through Sept. 19, covered a broad array of questions.
Forty-five percent of the respondents said they expected the U.S. economy to get worse over the next six months. Twenty-one percent said they expected it to improve, and 34 percent said it would remain the same.
Among their own companies, 18 percent said financial prospects would get worse over the next six months, 37 percent said they would improve and 45 percent said they would remain the same.
One third, or 34 percent of the executives, said prices or fees charged by their companies would increase in the next six months, while 58 percent said they would remain the same and 8 percent said prices would drop.
Just under one-third of the executives, 32 percent, said they expected headcount to increase in the next six months at their company, while 42 percent said it would remain the same and 26 percent said there would be job cuts.
The CFOS and comptrollers were most concerned about pricing pressure from employee benefits with 42 percent of those responding saying that was a concern. Other pricing concerns were raw materials (39 percent), energy (37 percent), insurance (18 percent) and commercial property (13 percent). Other concerns were cited by 16 percent of the respondents.
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