Safeguards, receiverships or direct liquidations… These statistics which describe the situation of defaults remain below pre-Covid levels, but they register an increase of 49.9% between 2021 and 2022.
So how can this paradox be explained? To better understand this situation, here are the figures in detail:
→ 10,000 defects less than in 2019 (-18.5%), but thegap is reduced at the end of the year (-9,3 %).
→ 3.214 PME (up to 100 employees) defaulted (+78.2%), a third of which in the 4th quarter (1,037).
→ More than 143,000 jobs are threatenedor 3.4 default jobs on average.
→ Young companies are extremely vulnerable (+94.2%).
→ The sectors of catering, masonry, bakery, hairdressing and cafes alone account for nearly 20% of failures;
→ More than 90% companies that have fallen are companies with fewer than ten employees.
What is the outlook for the future?
The momentum on the rise in insolvencies is not yet over: with theat the end of Covid aidchanges in consumer trends and financial difficulties, craft businesses will really still face persistent problems for the year 2023.
The analysis of Thierry Millon, director of Altares studies
“Since 2020, 103,000 companies defaulted compared to 162,000 during the previous three years. 59,000 failures were thus “spared” thanks in particular to the public aid systems deployed to deal with the consequences of the health crisis and then the war in Ukraine. »
“However, if the risk has been anesthetized, avoiding the dreaded wave of bankruptcies, companies are not unscathed from these long months of turbulence. Between inflation and the energy crisis, the climate is becoming even more complicated and equity capital is being called upon. Now, theBusiness Financing Observatory noted in its May 2021 report on the equity of VSEs and SMEs that while most of these companies faced the crisis with strengthened capital positions before Covid, some, on the other hand, had very degraded financial structures (a third of VSEs) or was insufficiently capitalized (20% of SMEs analyzed). »
>> Consult here the study in its entirety.
Express definition
A business failure is a term used to describe the failure of a business to meet its financial obligations or maintain its economic viability. This can happen for various reasons, such as bad management decisions, too much competition, an economic recession, technological changes or even a lack of liquidity. The consequences of this failure may lead to the liquidation of the company, the restructuring of its debt, the sale of its assets or the establishment of bankruptcy proceedings.
