Panic drives 10,000 companies to file for insolvency, with seven in ten requests coming from lenders

Three in four companies that requested the initiation of the insolvency procedure since the beginning of this year are lenders who could identify no faster solution for collecting their receivables and tried to put pressure on debtors in court, according to the latest statistics by the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).

According to data provided by ONRC to Business Standard, between 1 January and 15 July, over 10,000 Romanian companies requested the initiation of the insolvency procedure in court. Of these, only a third are companies that filed for insolvency of their own free will (3,040), as the remaining 7,000 are lenders.

"The financial crisis and the panic generated by this are the main problems that are driving companies to file for insolvency, to which the financial blockage of lenders is added. This is a normal reaction and should not necessarily be seen as a desperate measure," the Associate Coordinator of the Transylvania Insolvency House, Oana Luca, told Business Standard.

Filing for insolvency does not mean bankruptcy. "When the financial situation is precarious, companies must take protection measures and resort to insolvency to be able to reorganize the business," the President of the National Union of Insolvency Practitioners in Romania (UNPIR), Arin Stanescu, said.

The forecasts of insolvency specialists indicate that the situation will continue to worsen. Stanescu and Luca estimate that the number of insolvency applications will exceed 20,000 by year-end.

Money.ro