Swiss CFOs are less afraid of the effects of the corona crisis on their business than CFOs elsewhere. They also expect their companies to recover faster after the pandemic.
According to a recent survey by the consulting firm PwC, 58 percent of Swiss finance chiefs believe that the outbreak of the corona pandemic will have a significant impact on their business. Together with the CFOs from Germany and Denmark, they are the least worried worldwide about the effects of the corona crisis, as PwC announced on Thursday.
In early April, the consulting firm surveyed 824 chief financial officers from various industries in 21 countries to determine how they would respond to the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Globally, an average of just under three quarters of those surveyed stated that their company would probably have to accept significant impairments to their business operations due to the crisis.
Just over a third of all respondents said they expect business to normalize in one to three months after the pandemic ends. In this area too, the 36 respondents from Switzerland were somewhat more optimistic than their international colleagues. In Switzerland, around half believe a recovery within the first three months after the end of the pandemic.
Compared to the first survey, which PwC conducted two weeks earlier, it can be seen, however, that Swiss finance directors have become more pessimistic. While a fortnight ago almost two thirds were convinced that their company would recover from the crisis within a month, it is now less than a quarter.
Main concern recession
The most common concern of CFOs worldwide and also in Switzerland is the fear of a global recession and its financial impact. According to the survey, most companies are already noticing financial slumps. In Switzerland, three-quarters of CFOs believe that Covid-19 will have a negative financial impact on their companies’ earnings and profits. Globally, 80 percent believe that. Only around 8 percent of Swiss CFOs expect no financial losses.
Many are therefore considering cost savings (69%) and postponing or canceling planned investments (67%). Most respondents (83%) would most likely cancel investments in the area of capital expenditures, i.e. for long-term systems such as vehicles, machines, buildings or computer systems.
Swiss finance directors, on the other hand, would rarely forego buying companies. 67 percent said they would not change their mergers and acquisitions strategy. That is more than twice the global average of 30 percent. According to the study, this could be due to the fact that Swiss CFOs are generally less worried about the impact of the pandemic on business and are therefore less likely to deviate from their planned strategy than CFOs in other countries.
Many want government aid
Almost half (44%) of Swiss CFOs said they wanted to use the federal financial aid to survive the crisis. Another 19 percent were still undecided.
Switzerland is thus on average globally. The chief financial officers in Germany want to claim particularly little state aid. There, only 16 percent stated that they were planning to borrow money from the state.
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