The results of the latest QCA Small & Mid-Cap Sentiment Index provide an insight into how small and mid-sized quoted companies have responded to 2020 and what their outlook for next year is.
141 small & mid-sized quoted companies and 52 advisory firms in the small & mid-cap space were surveyed in November 2020.
Key findings
The findings indicate a turnaround in optimism in companies following the historic low points for the survey in Q2 at the start of the pandemic:
- 62% of small and mid-caps predict that they will increase jobs in the next 12 months
- Mean expected turnover growth rises to 13.9%
With regards to capital raising:
- Nearly half of small & mid caps looking to raise capital in the next 12 months
- However, there was a jump in companies from 0% to 13% saying they don’t know how they will raise capital (i.e. whether they will use the public equity markets, bank finance, etc). This is something that we’ve not seen before in the ten-year history of this survey.
In addition, we investigated audit fees and found out that for almost two-thirds of companies audit fees have increased this year, with an average increase of 26%.
We also dug into what governance committees companies have and found that:
- Nearly all small & mid-caps have remuneration and audit committees
- The majority also have nominations committees
- Around one in ten now have ESG committees
Thank you to those QCA members that took part in the survey.
Past waves of this survey can be viewed here.
