Two thirds of the companies rate the business situation as very good or good. Almost the same number of companies expected more profit this year than last year, around half have more sales, said the head of the KSV1870 creditor protection association, Ricardo-Jose Vybiral. Creditreform confirms this trend with a survey: The earnings situation of medium-sized companies is as good as it has been in the past ten years.
It is also surprising that the companies’ equity base has increased since the beginning of the crisis. Before the 2019 crisis, the equity ratio of public limited companies was 51.6 percent, but most recently it rose to 52.5 percent. The explanation: the companies were already doing well before the crisis, the slump in sales was not as severe as feared, the order books are full and the help has taken effect. A third of the companies might not have needed Corona help at all, said the KSV boss. Now it could be promoted “more precisely”, the “watering can” no longer makes sense.
The extrapolation of bankruptcies for 2021 resulted in a stable low number of insolvencies for companies (3,048, +0.5 percent compared to the previous year, -39 percent compared to 2019) and private individuals (7730, +0.4 percent compared to the previous year, -23 percent compared to 2019 ). A trend reversal happened in the fourth quarter, with bankruptcies rising to pre-crisis levels. This development will continue in 2022.
In Upper Austria there was a decrease of 7.4 percent to 262 cases compared to the previous year. The most recent increase in the fourth quarter can be explained by the fact that tax offices and health insurance companies are now starting to file for insolvency again, especially since state aid is running out, explains Petra Wögerbauer from the Linz location.
Source: Nachrichten
