“Mittelstand” businesses are the backbone of the German economy. To operate effectively, these businesses require sufficient financing provided through adequate financing instruments. Yet, which characteristics do capital seekers value in adequate financing instruments? Despite the macroeconomic relevance of the topic, only few empirical studies exist to this date, which examine the financing behaviour of “Mittelstand”. For the paper at hand, all PREPS financed German businesses were asked to fill out an online survey. PREPS is a standardized mezzanine financing instrument, which was offered to “Mittelstand” businesses with a high degree of credit worthiness - primarily to finance business growth. PREPS financed businesses are of particular interest for this research as they can choose from the greatest variety of financing options amongst their peers due to their size and credit worthiness. Financing instruments differ in terms of rights and obligations associated with them. Depending on their design, financing contracts can fulfil a variety of functions beyond the obvious supply of liquidity, such as financial transformation, influencing of behaviours, and signalling private information. The paper at hand suggests that the businesses in question selected the same financing instrument, however, for different reasons. Furthermore, the degree of appreciation for certain characteristics of the financing instrument varies with business and situation specific context. When exploring individual hypotheses on how individual factors influence this degree of appreciation for certain financing characteristics, this paper builds on core capital structure theories as well as recent empirical insights in regards to financing behaviour. In addition, the paper examines several explorative hypotheses.