Dimitri Margaritis
Professor of Finance
“
New Zealand businesses are at
the peril of Europe’s debt crisis.
Extensive deleveraging of European
banks is causing a dramatic scaling
back of financing in Asia-Pacific, making
it harder for New Zealand companies
to access finance.”
Deborah Shepherd
Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship
“
For those organisations that aim for
incremental growth, access to finance
may not be the ‘be all and end all’,
and there may be other ways that
organisations can attain growth, as noted
below. However, for those organisations
that aim for radical growth by entering
newmarkets or developing new products,
access to finance is likely to be critical.
In environments where debt finance
and / or capital is difficult to attain, it
can be useful to consider alternative
avenues for capital injection, such as
increasing the number of available shares
to new shareholders / owners, opening
up options for management to buy in to
the organisation and / or seeking offshore
investment. There are examples of
New Zealand organisations successfully
growing by accessing various sources of
investment or bringing in new equity
partners. Good starting points might be
to approach private equity firms both here
in New Zealand and abroad (particularly
looking for specific funds relevant to some
industries and / or investments), talking
with people within the New Zealand
Trade and Enterprise network, making
contact with the KEA network, engaging
the Angel investment community, and
exploring what is happening within your
industry for potential trade partners,
acquisitions or joint ventures.”
But access to finance is not the “be all
and end all” of growth:
professor Greg Whittred
Dean of the Business School
“
Access to finance is indeed a challenging
issue for New Zealand’s organisations.
However, solving that issue is not
necessarily going to solve growth
problems. Studies have shown that
organisations that focus on improving
managerial capabilities are most likely
to achieve high growth. The skills and
knowledge of managers play such a
critical role in growth, and this is a key
area on which New Zealand organisations
should be focusing.”
Hugh Whittaker
Professor of management, Director
of the New Zealand Asia Institute
“
The primary differentiator between
slow and fast growing organisations is
not necessarily access to finance. It is,
in fact, innovation. Research has shown
that the fastest-growing organisations
are those that build in-house innovation
capabilities and develop innovations that
are new to their industries. Importantly,
they involve customers in developing
such innovations.”
Gerald Fitzgerald
Chairman, Banking & Finance Law
“
At a time when access to finance
is difficult, have you considered all
of the avenues when it comes to
raising capital? Venture, development
capital, and private equity markets
both in New Zealand and overseas
are possibilities, and there are also a
number of overseas-based high-net-
worth individuals who are in the market
looking at investments. Being in the right
networks and having ‘connected’ advisers
can assist you with this. We have been
able to assist a number of clients in their
quest to access capital.”
Greg Cain
Partner, Employment Law
Sheana Wheeldon
Partner, IP Law
“
Taking heed of the Business School
comments that growth is not reliant
on access to finance, and instead that
managerial capabilities and innovation
are key, we advise that you look at
your employment agreements and
remuneration policies. These should
ensure that you have adequate scope
to reward, incentivise and retain staff,
and that your intellectual property is
protected, to maintain the advantage
that innovation can give you.”
28
t h e n ew no rma l
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key findings //
4:
Access to finance cont. . .