Kapitaldienstfähigkeit is the question whether a business generates enough surplus to service its debt, meaning to pay the interest and the agreed repayment on schedule. A bank tests it before it lends, because the loan is repaid out of the surplus the pharmacy produces and out of nothing else. Collateral is the lender's security when that surplus fails, rather than what it lends against in the first place.
The surplus that counts is smaller than the operating result, because the lender works through it in a fixed order:
- The starting point is the Betriebsergebnis of the pharmacy.
- The lender adds back the items that are costs in the accounts but not payments during the year.
- It then deducts the tax on the profit and the money the owner needs to live on, because both leave the business whether or not there is a loan.
- What remains is the amount genuinely available for interest and repayment.
An owner who quotes the result before private drawings has answered a different question from the one the bank asked.
Because the test uses payments rather than bookings, it is closely related to the Liquiditätsplanung, since a surplus that exists across the year but not in the months when the instalments fall due is still a problem.
The term of the loan changes the answer as well, because stretching the repayment over more years lowers the instalment and makes the test easier to pass, at the cost of paying interest for longer. The Amortisationsdauer of the investment is the argument on the other side of that discussion.
A new revenue line only helps the application if the lender believes the uptake assumption behind it, because revenue that exists only as a plan counts for less than revenue that already appears in the books. An investment argued entirely on a service that has not started yet is argued from the weaker position.
Presenting the assumption openly, with the number of appointments it implies and the consumables, laboratory charges and working time deducted from the fee, is more convincing than a round annual figure.
The Eigenkapitalquote is read alongside this rather than instead of it, since equity describes what has been built up while this test describes how much debt service the business can currently afford.
Lenders differ in how they calculate it and no single method is binding, so the definitions and the figures belong with the bank and with the Steuerberater before an application is submitted.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
