CITR: The entrepreneurial environment was more oriented towards the new restructuring mechanisms

CITR, the leader of the insolvency and restructuring market in Romania, analyzes the evolution of the restructuring and insolvency cases from the first half of 2023, and the results show a high increase of the business environment interest towards the new restructuring products, with 30 arrangements with creditors, out of which two are already approved by courts of law. The number of companies that became insolvent decreased by 6.2%, to 3,290, compared to 3,510 in the same period of last year. At the same time, out of the significant companies, the number of companies that became insolvent slightly increased: 35, compared to 32 in the first six months of 2022.

“In the last six months, we felt a pressure on the companies which must face higher financing costs or the inability to pay debts postponed for a very long time, and which got used to this paradigm. The high interest of entrepreneurs in the new restructuring mechanisms is increasingly visible. 30 projects of arrangements with creditors do not seem a large number, but for the economy of Romania, it is the beginning of a mindset change. Considering the confidential nature of the restructuring procedures, we do not have visibility on all the open projects, especially on restructuring agreements, but we can estimate that the number of companies that use restructuring solutions is larger,” Paul Dieter Cîrlănaru, CEO, CITR, said.

In the first half-year of this year, 30 companies used restructuring measures by arrangements with creditors, out of which eight significant companies, with assets of over EUR 1 million, compared to 12 such cases in the entire year 2022.

Companies undergoing insolvency

In relation to the total number of insolvencies reported in period January – June 2023, namely 3,290, significant companies, with non-current assets of over EUR 1 million, represent 1.06%.

The most affected fields are:

constructions (449 companies undergoing insolvency);
road transportation of commodities (248 companies);
trade (177 companies).

On the other hand, these areas sum up the most companies in the economy.

In Bucharest, 695 companies used the insolvency procedure, out of which 17 significant companies, with assets over EUR 1 million. On county level, the distribution of insolvencies in the first half-year of 2023 brings Bihor in the first position, with 241 companies and 7.33% of all reported insolvencies. Cluj is next, with 174 companies and a weight of 5.29% of the total, followed by Constanta, with 165 companies and 5.02% of the reported insolvencies, at national level.