Austria on Course for New Record Year of Corporate Bankruptcies

Particularly significant are the numerous bankruptcies in the real estate sector. Nine of the ten largest insolvencies by liabilities fall into this category. The largest bankruptcies involve several corporate groups, namely those of Signa/Benko and 6B47. By far the largest was that of Herkules Holding GmbH (formerly Laura Holding GmbH), belonging to Benko's corporate group, with liabilities of over one billion euros. Overall, the real estate sector and financial and insurance services account for around 85 percent of the total liabilities of 3.91 billion euros, amounting to 3.3 billion euros.

3,861 Employees in Austria Affected by Corporate Insolvencies

Despite the high liabilities, the number of affected employees was declining. 3,861 employees were affected by corporate insolvencies in the first quarter of 2025 (1st quarter 2024: 5,673). The most jobs, namely 515, were affected at Palmers.

The most affected sector was again trade with 299 insolvencies, followed by the construction industry (250) and gastronomy (167). The AKV expects that there will be more than 4,500 opened corporate insolvencies this year - including rejections due to lack of assets, nearly 8,000 total insolvencies could be reached by the end of the year.

More than half (53.53 percent) of the corporate bankruptcies were opened through creditor applications. Regionally, there were particularly strong increases in Tyrol (+60.5 percent) and Salzburg (+23.6 percent).

Private Insolvencies Approximately at Previous Year's Level

Private insolvencies are approximately at the level of the previous year despite rising unemployment. A total of 2,266 debt settlement procedures were opened - 2.91 percent less than in the same period of the previous year. Including rejections due to lack of assets, the total amounts to 2,560 procedures, representing an overall increase of 1.31 percent.

The total liabilities of the opened debt settlement procedures amounted to around 243.5 million euros, corresponding to an average debt of 107,400 euros. Men were disproportionately represented with 63 percent of the cases and had significantly higher debts on average at 130,700 euros compared to women (67,800 euros).

(APA/Red.)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.