1. SME-Statistics Registering of small and medium enterprises or counting of affiliates Eurostat Unit D1

2. 250 Employees 50 Million Euro turnover And/or balance sheet total of 43 Million Euro 43.000.000 Assets Liabilities Quantitative Criteria for the definition of SME

3. Qualitative Criteria And the enterprise must be independent That means: No other enterprise must own directly or indirectly a share of voting rights, which is bigger then 25 % < 25% Enterprise 2 Enterprise 1

4. The German definition for Mittelstand means only enterprises where the owner or members of the owner family also manage the enterprise. This avoids the Principal Agent problem. The owner knows his enterprise from inside.

5. Difference between SME and Affiliate In an enterprise which is owned by private Investors decisions are different from an enterprise that is owned by a group Unit 1 Unit 3 Unit 2 Type 2 Type 1 Type 3

6. Legal unit 1 200 Legal unit 2 200 Legal unit 3 200 Legal unit 4 200 Legal unit 5 200 Holding Enterprise 1 1000

8. Source: Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn

9. Share of SME in the qualitative sense ordered by legal form Source: Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn