The share of Ukrainian companies that expect business dynamics to deteriorate over the next six months is 56% of respondents, according to the survey of the European Business Association (EBA) “Business during the war”.
According to data published by the EBA press service on Wednesday, 27% do not expect any changes and 16% believe that the situation will improve within six months.
“Despite this, 47% of top managers plan business expansion, in particular, growth of the client base and production, entry into international markets, etc.,” the EBA states.
At the same time, 45% of the surveyed top managers assess the state of affairs in their business as satisfactory, and 27% as positive, while the other 27% assess the current business situation rather negatively.
The number of member companies of the association operating at full capacity decreased compared to the beginning of the year to 64% from 78%.
Accordingly, the number of restrictions applied by companies has increased: currently 36% of respondents work with restrictions, among the most common are the lack of qualified workers/mobilization (75%), restrictions on the geography of activity (60%) and suspension of work during air alarms (46%).
It is noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 48% of businesses have seen a decrease in revenue, while 47% have seen an increase, and 6% have not changed.
Among the respondents, 48% export goods or services abroad.
As reported by the EBA, entrepreneurs name mobilization (71%), attacks on the Ukrainian energy system (61%), war/occupation of territories (58%), lack of qualified workers (58%) as the factors with the greatest negative impact on business.
The business maintains financial stability, but slightly worsened the assessment of financial reserves compared to the beginning of 2024. More than half of the companies (53%) have reserves for a year or more, while during the previous survey there were 65%, another 32% – for half a year, 15% – for several months and 1% have no reserves at all.
It is emphasized that business losses from the war continue to increase. As of mid-2024, for 26% of the surveyed companies, they amount to $1 million, 31% report losses in the range of $1-10 million, 17% – losses over $10 million, only 14% of the surveyed companies did not experience losses.
Business also maintains a consistently high level of support for the armed forces: 63% support their employees in the ranks of the Armed Forces, 49% help financially, and 45% – with products. 27% of respondents are involved in the restoration of communities or regions.
Today, 86% of the surveyed member companies of the association have employees in the ranks of the Armed Forces. In half of the companies (52%), the number of conscripts reaches 10% of the total number of conscripts, in 28% the number of conscripts reaches 10-20%, in 6% – 20-40%.
About half of the companies (46%) report that among the mobilized or volunteers are specialists critical to the company’s work, including managers, engineers, IT specialists, drivers, electricians, mechanics, and production line operators.
Among the audience of the association, only 9% carried out office or production relocation in connection with Russian aggression, in particular, 7% – within Ukraine and 2% – abroad.
Only 11% of companies used state or international support programs over the past 2.5 years.
73% of companies plan to attract financing for business development. Most of them (60%) intend to use their own funds for this, 19% plan to attract bank lending, 15% – investments, and 5% – grants. 25% of surveyed enterprises are ready to borrow from banks on market terms.
Among the difficulties in obtaining credit, companies mention high rates, non-resident beneficiaries, inappropriate terms, and slow decision-making.
The survey was conducted from June 7 to 25, 2024, and 95 top managers of EBA member companies (legal entities) took part in it.
