A wave of successions will sweep across Germany's small and medium-sized enterprise sector in the coming years. Until the year 2019, 240,000 businesses will change owners. For some 100,000 of them, time is running out. They still do not have a succession plan. But the nearer the time of transfer approaches, the less owners invest in their business. Clarity of succession therefore leverages investment - by a considerable 40 %. Managing generational change remains difficult. There are still not enough qualified new entrepreneurs moving up. Moreover, most owner-managers are not very flexible and have decided on a single form of succession. The demographic trend will ensure that the need for successors will also remain high in the future. One quarter of all owner-managers will be well over the age of 70 by the time they plan to retire. Already, 1.4 million are aged 55 or over.

Wave of successions in German SMEs: 240,000 successors wanted by 2019(PDF, 166 KB, non-accessible)

Press release