They rose 92 percent to 3,482 cases. The estimated liabilities increased by 88 percent to around 1.4 billion euros, the number of affected employees to 9,800 (+72 percent). There were 6,209 private bankruptcies, 24 percent more – with average debts of 107,000 euros per bankruptcy.
The list of challenges that companies have had to deal with for many months has not gotten any shorter over the summer months, according to Karl-Heinz Götze from KSV. Nevertheless, the number of company insolvencies is still 9 percent below the comparative value of the last year before Corona, 2019. But: “Continuing cost explosions, serious delivery bottlenecks and the difficult search for personnel are just a few factors why the overall economic situation has recently deteriorated has,” said Götze.
Expectations for the coming months are muted. Around half of the companies have a negative view of the end of the year.
The KSV finds it worrying that 40 percent of all company bankruptcies this year were dismissed for lack of cost coverage. In the previous year it was 32 percent. The increase is because many companies had to file for bankruptcy much earlier, according to Götze. Due to the continued operation, however, the very last resources would be used up, which means that rehabilitation would no longer be possible. This leads to more job losses and the creditors look through the fingers.
According to KSV, (car) trade, construction and tourism are the drivers of insolvency. Overall, there were an average of 13 bankruptcies per day. The significant increase in total liabilities is due, among other things, to the bankruptcy of the CPI Group (liabilities: around EUR 220 million) and the fall of Polytechnik Luft- und Feuerungstechnik GmbH (EUR 66.3 million).
In the case of private bankruptcies, there were 23 openings per day. Here, too, total liabilities have increased. The sum rose by a good 16 percent to a total of around 665 million euros.
According to Götze, people’s wallets in Austria are currently being weighed down enormously by inflation – increased energy costs, price increases in supermarkets. The increase is not surprising. But here too, the pre-corona level (7,174 cases) has not yet been reached, although the number of private bankruptcies opened has risen continuously since the insolvency amendment (guideline on restructuring and insolvency) came into force in July 2021.
“In private bankruptcy, the current increase is mainly due to the insolvency amendment of the previous year, which brought significant simplifications, such as a shorter debt relief period for debtors. But if you look into the future, the exploding costs will also have an impact on almost all situations in life ” says Goetze.
Source: Nachrichten
