Bankruptcies on the rise in the 1st quarter of 2024, liquidations down sharply

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According to the latest count from the Ministry of Justice and STATEC, 317 companies were declared bankrupt and 31 were liquidated during the first quarter of 2024.

Bankruptcies

The number of bankruptcies is up by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2023 (317 compared with 276 judgements). Initial estimates put the number of salaried jobs lost as a result of bankruptcies at 1,239, compared with 768 in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of more than 60%. Similar levels of job losses in a single quarter have not been seen since 2011.

Construction has been the sector most affected by bankruptcies since 2023. This situation worsened in the 1st quarter of 2024, both in absolute terms (with 71 bankruptcies, or +18% compared to the 1st quarter of 2023) and in terms of loss of salaried jobs. These are estimated at around 660, 244% more than in the first quarter of 2023. The construction sector thus accounts for more than half of all bankruptcies-related job losses.

The trade sector recorded 47 bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2024. Although this number was down on the first quarter of 2023 (47 compared with 55), the loss of salaried jobs more than tripled (133 compared with 44).

There were also 32 bankruptcies in the hotels and catering sector (down 11% on the first quarter of 2023), with initial provisional data showing around 194 job losses (up 46%).

Graph 1: Number of bankruptcies per month since January 2018

Liquidations

There was a sharp fall in the number of liquidations in the first quarter of 2024, which was 10 times lower than in the first quarter of 2023. In fact, the number of liquidations of holding companies and investment funds collapsed, whereas these had previously accounted for the majority of liquidations.

Graph 2: Number of liquidations per month since January 2018

All these themes can be consulted in STATEC's "Bankruptcies and Liquidations" Dashboard, published on 17 April 2024. The statistics on bankruptcies are based on the record of judicial decisions, taken from the Trade Register and dating from 15 April 2024 for the most recent data.

The number of bankruptcies is calculated as the sum of "openings" or "reopenings" minus the bankruptcies reported from the judicial procedure "judgments and rulings declaring bankruptcy". These figures are provisional.

Contact

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This publication was produced by Laurent Bley.
STATEC would like to thank all the contributors to this publication.

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