Access to finance and venture capital for industrial SMEs

SMEs play a crucial role for European economies. The numbers show the high importance of SMEs for national economies. Accordingly, it is no surprise that the regulatory framework SMEs are imbedded in is the subject of an important political discussion. In the discussion it is frequently mentioned by representatives of SMEs as well as associations of SMEs, that the access to finance for SMEs is still inferior. Based on the importance of SMEs for national economies and the discussion on the accessibility of financial resources for SMEs, it is the main objective of this study to provide solid data on the access of SMEs to financial resources. To provide the data, the study is focusing on four main issues. First of all, the importance of SMEs for national economies will be shown. After that the financing of SMEs in selected countries will be analysed. Then the availability of venture capital for SMEs will be discussed. Finally the tax regimes and the influence of the tax system on the access to finance for SMEs will be analysed. Since there is still a large variety among the tax systems of the European Union member states, the study has focused on Austria, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. --SME,financial structure,venture capital,tax framework,accounting standards

Financing the embedded value of life insurance portfolios

In May 2004 the CFO Forum harmonized the various efforts of reporting the embedded valueof life insurance companies by issuing the European Embedded Value (EEV) Principles.In this working paper a methodology is proposed to derive a maximum lending amountfrom EEV figures without much additional data requirements from the originating insurer. The approach chosen is similar to that of other financing areas, e.g. real estate finance, where first a prudent best estimate valuation is done and later risk deductions are performed in the form of applying loan to value ratios, e.g. 60-80 % of the prudent amount. Here, this prudent value is called bankable embedded value and the loan to value analysis presented leads to the maximum lending amount. The deductions proposed to arrive at a maximum lending amount are based on parameter adjustments and risk allowances for unexpected risks. There is an analogy with insurers for determining their own capital needs. The methodology proposed is based on the stress test approach which increasingly gains popularity with insurance supervisors in Europe. --European embedded value,embedded value,life insurance policies,maximum lending amount,required capital,risk analysis,risk discount rate,value reporting and analysis,value sensitivity analysis

Leistungsmessung der Internen Revision

This paper explores approaches to measure the performance of the internal audit function. Based upon three proposed dimensions of formal internal audit performance - material performance, cost and risk - it uses competence research methodology to characterize and structure internal audit competence as the prerequisite for material performance that can be measured by instruments of service quality measurement. A second approach to measure formal internal audit performance is taken by linking the other two dimensions in the context of make or buy decisions, where activity-based costing can be used to analyze internal audit services and cluster this service portfolio according to transaction costs or risks associated with them. Whereas the first approach uses management's expectation as a benchmark for material performance and allows for deeper analysis of deviations between the expected and the actual performance, the second approach uses the comparison of actual costs with costs of outsourcing solutions adjusted for the specific risks incurred. Both approaches are subject to further inquiry as their validity for practical and theoretical problems has not yet been evaluated. --Internal audit,competence,performance,measurement,service management,GAP analysis,costs,make or buy,transaction costs,outsourcing

Analyse von Steueramnestiedaten

Tax fraud is a serious problem for fiscal authorities worldwide, not only in countries regarded as hightax like Germany. Besides longterm tax reforms, tax amnesties are used to bring back taxable amounts into the legal sector. The German tax amnesty of 2004/2005 was one of the last examples in Europe and was - like other tax amnesties before - of limited success. This paper uses a given database with 126 tax amnesties between 1981 and 2005 in several countries worldwide. Aim is to develope predictions about the fiscal success or failure of a tax amnesty, depending on its structure and legal plus economic background. --Steuerhinterziehung,Steueramnestie,lineare Regression,Tax fraud,Tax amnesty,linear regression

Undoing Gender/Dancing Affect

The article explores the connections between dance, choreography and affect. In a critical negotiation with post-structuralist thinking, especially Judith Butler, Hölscher argues that affect theory from Spinoza through Deleuze and Massumi may constitute a theoretical framework for rethinking the transformative power of the body and its capability for action and agency

Herkunft, Ausbreitung, Vergesellschaftung und Ökologie von Senecio inaequidens DC. unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Köln-Aachener Raumes

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Bestände vorwiegend aus dem Raum Köln-Aachen beschrieben, in denen die sehr expansive, neophytische Art Senecio inaequidens DC. an ruderalen oder ruderalisierten Standorten meist schon häufiger auftritt. Die ca. 160 vorgestellten Vegetationsaufnahmen zeigen in ihrer Zuordnung zu bestimmten Pflanzengesellschaften ein breites Spektrum von den Sedo-Scleranthetea, Chenopodietea (Sisymbrion), Artemisietea (Dauco-Melilotion), Molinio-Arrhenatheretea (Arrhenatherion), Plantaginetea (Polygonion avicularis), Agropyretea (Convolvulo-Agropyrion), Agrostietea (Agropyro-Rumicion) über Bidentetea und andere Feuchtgesellschaften hin zum Sambuco-Salicion capreae bzw. Salicion albae. Sonderformen unterschiedlichster Standortbedingungen werden zusätzlich angeführt. Obwohl das Optimum der Art im Dauco-Melilotion an warm-trockenen Standorten zu liegen scheint, bleiben solche unter anderen edaphischen Bedingungen nicht ausgeschlossen. Soziologisch ungesättigte Gesellschaften und ihre Entwicklungsphasen an anthropogen gestörten bzw. geschaffenen Standorten werden bevorzugt besiedelt. Angaben über Herkunft, Verbreitung und Ökologie der Art, die in Bremen und seinem Umland sowie im Raum Aachen-Köln-Düsseldorf als eingebürgert zu gelten hat, ergänzen die Gesamtdarstellung.This paper deals with vegetation often dominated by the neophytic species Senecio inaequidens DC., especially from the Cologne-Aachen area where it shows recent explosive distribution on ruderal or ruderalised sites. The roughly 160 phytosociological relevés presented demonstrate a wide spectrum of communities involved, ranging from Sedo-Scleranthetea, Chenopodietea, Artemisietea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Plantaginetea, Agropyretea, Agrostietea, Bidentetea and other wet communities to Sambuco-Salicion capreae and Salicion albae. Special types with quite different ecological conditions are also mentioned. The optimum of this species seems to be in the Dauco-Melilotion on dry, warm sites, but sites with other edaphic conditions are also involved. Sociologically unsaturated communities and their successional phases in man-made or disturbed areas are favored. Origin, distribution and ecology of this species, which has become very well established in the regions of Bremen and of Cologne-Aachen-Düsseldorf, are also discussed