ICAP (2014) “Corporate Insolvencies in Europe, 2013/14“, Creditreform, Wirtschaftsforschung, July.
The great European economic crisis: For five years now, it has had the continent firmly in its grip. Recently, though, there were optimistic signs when Greece and Portugal succeeded for the first time in ages in placing substantial government bonds on the capital markets and thus making themselves independent of ESM and Co. For the indebted countries of Southern Europe, news of this kind injects fresh courage. And indeed, the process of economic contraction in the south of the continents appears to have at least slowed down, while the reforms initiated there are starting to making themselves felt. That is the bright side. But the consequences of the lengthy crisis are apparent not just in countries like Greece: ongoing high unemployment, economic decline, a mountain of private and public debt. And it is still not clear that the drastic course of treatment has in fact improved the competitiveness of the countries concerned to such an extent that they can cope with the forces of the market again. In the northern parts of Europe, the effect of the crisis may well have been considerably more moderate, but here, too, a need for action has been revealed, for instance in the form of structural reforms.
This survey takes a look at corporate stability in Europe with regard to insolvency and the threat it represents. Especially for SME exporters with no manufacturing sites or sales bases of their own outside Germany’s borders, awareness of the risks involved in cooperating with companies in other European countries is of crucial importance.