23,000 lost their jobs

Benko and KTM drove bankruptcies to record levels

Real estate juggler René Benko was Austria's biggest bankrupt last year.

(Bild: EPA)

The bankruptcy balance sheet for 2024 is now available, and it is worse than ever before: according to calculations by the Alpenländische Kreditorenverband (AKV), the total debt level scratched the 20 billion euro mark for the first time at 19.55 billion euros.

In 2023, it was "only" 16.75 billion. In total, 6768 companies had to go to insolvency court last year, and 4156 of them actually ended up in bankruptcy proceedings. That was 346 per month and 23 percent more than in the previous year. In the remaining 2,600 cases, there were not enough assets for a formal liquidation and they were dismissed due to a lack of assets. As a particularly bitter consequence of the record number of bankruptcies, almost 23,000 employees lost their jobs.

A number of spectacular, huge insolvencies were to blame for the deep red balance sheet. Motorcycle manufacturer KTM topped the list with liabilities of 1.8 billion euros, according to the creditors' representative Creditreform (see also table). It was followed by the US electric car manufacturer Fisker, which had its vehicles manufactured by Magna in Graz via its Austrian subsidiary and is therefore included in our list.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

Seven Benko companies in the "top 10"
The biggest bankrupt in total, however, was real estate juggler René Benko. Six companies in his Signa Group, plus the Benko private foundation, accumulated over 3.5 billion euros in debt at the expense of his creditors.

Other prominent companies whose restructuring ultimately failed included the furniture retailer kikaLeiner, the real estate company Imfarr and the heating technology manufacturer Windhager. The Salzburg-based traditional costume fashion specialist Gössl was one of the companies hit in December (see table).

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

The reasons for the negative records are clear: "The recession persists. As feared, the fall in production and investment during the real estate crisis has spread to the retail and industrial sectors," explains the AKV. Due to a lack of new orders, warehouses are full, uncertainty on the labor market is dampening consumer sentiment and further accelerating the crisis.

As a result, the AKV expects many more bankruptcies at least until the middle of this year.