The amount of bankruptcies doubled last year
25.03.2009, 16:32 Last year 429 companies bankrupted
according to Krediidiinfo AS: That is 110 pct or 221 companies more than in
2007, ERR News reports.
So far the number on bankruptcies has decreased, but showed rapid growth
again last year. Krediidiinfo forecasts the amount of bankruptcies to increase
by 80 pct this year, but the number may be bigger in case the second half a year
doesn’t show improvements.
Most of the bankrupt companies were small, with annual sales turnover smaller
than EEK 10 mln.
Speaking of fields of activities, most of them were from producing sector,
followed by entertainment and servicing sectors.
One of the characteristics of a bankrupt company is rapid growth of short and
long financial obligations, which is the reason of weak valuation by banks,
Anne-Ly Ots, the research manager said.
“These loans haven’t gone to companies’ fixes assets, companies have probably
financed current assets. It seems that in 2006-2007 banks got quite careless
with borrowing and now it probably will bring a setback,” she said.
The number of bankruptcies in Estonia (year and bankruptcies):
2004 - 436
2005 - 419
2006 - 352
2007 - 202
2008 -
423