The importance of commercial credit for business in Portugal

Purpose – this work aims to study the non-financial credit granted to customers by Portuguese companies, when this is used as a form of financing. Here, we intend to analyze the impact that this type of credit (commercial credit) may have on the capital structure of a company, because, receiving such credit, can be seen sometimes to overlap with financial credit (banks). Methodology – we will present our analysis in two phases: in the first, we will distinguish between large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, and later we will make a more global analysis. This way, in addition obtaining information into the ways business finance themselves, we can also get a sense of the main motivations and determinants of this type of credit through an analysis using the panel data methodology. Findings – this study shows us some interesting realities. Among others, it is possible to highlight the fact that large companies are the ones that most appeal to commercial credit, and the evidence that the companies with greater ability to access the capital markets, higher gross margin and higher sales volume grant more trade credit than the others. Value – one of the most valuable points of this work is that the data was collected during the current economic crisis. It provides insight into how companies responded to this and this is reflected in the data and the conclusions drawn. The current financial situation of crisis, together with the difficulty of access to loans, as well as the pressure from shareholders of the companies to obtain results, are some of the factors that were focused in this study.