In June I predicted 225 bankruptcies for 2008 (see Update and on Bankruptcies and Distress). As of today, there have been 120 bankruptcies thus far this year (data from Bankrupctydata.com). This translates into a pace of about 195 bankruptcies for 2008, up from a pace of about 180 in June. I fully expect the pace to quicken as the months go on, so if anything, 225 may turn out to be a bit of an underestimate, …but not by much.

As I mentioned in a previous post, 225 bankruptcies would fall far short of the 289 bankruptcies from 2000 and 383 in 2001. I do not think we will reach 289 this year (even if my prediction turns out to be optimistic). However, I would not be surprised to see 2009 challenge the 383 mark from 2001.

Below you can find a list of what I see as the “noteworthy” bankruptcies of 2008. New additions since June appear in RED (please note that this is not an exhaustive list):

• Aloha Airlines (airline)
• AMERICAN COLOR GRAPHICS (newspaper)
• ASCENDIA BRANDS (retail)
• ATA (airline)
• Bear Stearns (banking)****
• BLUEPOINT RE (insurance)
• Blue Water Holdings (auto)
• BOSCOV’S (retail)
• Buffets Holdings (restaurants)
• Education Resource Institute (insurance)
• Empire Land (real estate)
• Eos Airlines (airline)
• Fashion House Holdings (retail)
• Fortunoff (retail)
• Friedman’s Jewelers (retail)
• Fred Leighton Holdings (retail)
• FREMONT GENERAL (banking)
• Frontier Airlines (airline)
• GEMINI AIR CARGO (air delivery/freight)
• Goody’s (retail)
• GREEKTOWN HOLDINGS (casino)
• INDYMAC (banking)
• JHT HOLDINGS (trucking/transportation)
  
• LANDSOURCE (real estate)
• Legends Gaming (casino)
• Lillian Vernon (retail)
• Linens n’ Things (retail)
• Kimball Hill (real estate)
• Landsource Community Development (real estate)
• Matrix Development Corporation (real estate)
• MERVYN’S (retail)
• MORTGAGES LTD. (banking)
• PIERRE FOODS (food services)
  
• PRC LLC (business services consulting)
• Propext (textiles)
• Quebecor World (USA), Inc. (office services/printing)
• Red Envelope (retail)
• Sharper Image (retail)
• Silverjet Airlines (airline)
• Sirva (moving services)
• Skybus (airline)
• STA RESTAURANTS – BENNIGAN’S (restaurants)
• Steakhouse Partners (restaurants)
• STEVE AND BARRY’S (retail)
• SYNTAX-BRILLIAN – OLEVIA (electronics)
• Tropicana (casinos)
• WCI (real estate)
• WHITEHALL JEWELERS (jewelry)
  
• Wickes Furniture (retail)
• Vicorp (restaurants)
• Ziff Davis (media)

Most of these bankruptcies have occurred in industries that are close to the struggling consumer. That is no surprise. But again, I expect bankruptcies to become more broad-based as this recession continues to spillover to the broader economy.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Bankruptcies, Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.