Image: APA/EVA MANHART
The market shake-out in Austria has “gained full speed” after years of zero interest rates and the corona pandemic, said the creditors’ association AKV on Tuesday in a press release on the 2023 insolvency statistics. The record level of liabilities is due to the billion-dollar bankruptcies in the Signa empire.
More on the subject: What did the Signa supervisory board actually do?
The Alpine Creditors Association (AKV) speaks of an “unprecedented explosive increase in total liabilities” due to the insolvencies in the Signa Group. Of the total of 14 billion euros in liabilities, almost 10.5 billion euros were attributable to the seven Signa insolvencies. At the end of November 2023, Signa Holding had to file for bankruptcy, followed a month later by its subsidiaries Prime and Development. Even without Signa, the amount of liabilities would have increased by more than 50 percent from EUR 2.3 billion in 2022 to EUR 3.5 billion in 2023.
Number of bankruptcies threaten jobs
The number of jobs threatened by the bankruptcies has also skyrocketed by over 50 percent to more than 18,400. Insolvency around Signa also played a role here. Leiner & kika Möbelhandels GmbH filed for bankruptcy a few days after selling Signa to trading manager Hermann Wieser. This bankruptcy alone affected almost 3,300 employees; it was the largest bankruptcy of the year in terms of employees. There were also many other retail bankruptcies, from the sporting goods retailer Geomix and the Sport 2000 cooperative Zentrasport to the automotive accessories chain Forstinger and the fashion chains Tally Weijl and Jones.
In total, insolvency proceedings were opened for around 3,400 companies in 2023. This is an increase of 16 percent compared to 2022. According to AKV, the insolvencies in 2023 represent the highest value in the last decade. The number of company insolvencies opened increased disproportionately, especially towards the end of the year, the creditor protection association announced. 2,200 insolvency applications were rejected due to a lack of assets, meaning in these cases there was no assets that could be divided among the creditors.
The AKV assumes that the number of bankruptcies will continue to rise this year. The creditors’ association expects 6,000 bankruptcies over the course of 2024.
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