Did rising energy prices lead to a series of bankruptcies, as certain professional organizations advertised? Not at the moment, although corporate bankruptcies have been on a steady rise since the beginning of 2022. A few months after urgently deployed support measures by the government to quell the bakers’ revolt, figures published on Thursday by the Bank of France seem to confirm it. that the worst has not happened.
The latest central bank statistics certainly attest to an increase in corporate bankruptcies, without specifying the cause, but there are still fewer bankruptcies and liquidations than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between April 2022 and March 2023, the number of company bankruptcies thus stood at 45,120, 12% below the total registered between April 2018 and March 2019. The twelve-month accumulation of bankruptcies is also maintained “for below the average level registered in the period 2010-2019 (59,342 breakdowns)”, details the Banque de France.
Gradual return to “normal situation”
A much less alarming finding than that of the CPME in October 2022. In a survey of 2,400 heads of small businesses, the employers’ organization then indicated that nearly one in ten VSE/SME managers were planning to stop their activity due to rising prices. energy prices. . “Indeed, there is an increase in collective procedures,” acknowledges Rozen Saint-Joanis, departmental adviser to get out of the crisis (CDSC) in Eure.
Like her, another hundred advisors throughout France are in charge of guiding the companies in her department through the maze of aid measures deployed by the State (tariff shield, electric damper, help desk for the payment of gas and electricity bills …).
Effect of government communication on aid
“I cannot subscribe to the fact that there is a bankruptcy wall,” confirms Anne Ramos, CDSC de la Creuse. In this department, which according to her has some 3,500 companies, barely 47 bankruptcy proceedings were opened in 2022. A low total may be related to the fact that certain companies in crisis resort more easily to the consular chambers (CCI, CMA). than to the departmental ones. support advisors.
However, all the CDSCs contacted acknowledge that they have been much more in demand by companies since the beginning of the year. “We received an additional influx” following the communication campaigns launched by the government to promote the various aids, says Jean-Yves Bolot, CDSC des Vosges. Requests have multiplied “by eight or nine,” he says.
Energy continues to be the main concern of companies
More than the repayment of state-guaranteed loans (PGE) or supply strains, “energy is really the big concern today,” said Alain Di Crescenzo, president of CCI France, the national network of chambers of commerce and industry. “We are in the phases of massive renewal of energy contracts,” he adds to explain this increase in requests from companies. The departmental councilor for the exit from the crisis in Aude, Edith Sarrazin, recently had to come to the rescue of a hotel whose monthly electricity bill had jumped from 2,000 to 14,000 euros, the equivalent of its monthly billing.
If France has not experienced a wall of bankruptcies at this stage, caution should still be exercised and 55% of companies surveyed in March by CCI France said they felt the effects of rising energy prices on their business. 70% of industrial companies say they are affected by energy inflation in the latest CCI France survey published on Thursday, but the rise in prices “also penalizes small traders, bakers,” warns Alain Di Crescenzo.
Credit insurer Allianz Trade expects more business bankruptcies in 2023 than in 2019. Given the current context,” said Maxime Lemerle, head of insolvency studies at Allianz Trade.
Source: BFM TV
