In mid-August I predicted that “major” bankruptcies for 2008 would reach 225 (see Bankruptcies Revisited). Through October there had been 172 such bankruptcies, as reported by Bankrupctydata.com. That implied a pace of around 210 bankruptcies, well short of my prediction.

At the time however, I suggested that the filing pace was likely to quicken in November and December as the economy deteriorated at a more rapid clip. Sure enough, the final numbers bear out my prediction. According to Bankruptcydata.com, “major” filings reached 231 in 2008.

231 bankruptcies falls far short of the 289 “major” bankruptcies in 2000 and 383 in 2001 (the dotcom bust). However, I would not be surprised to see 2009 challenge the 383 mark from 2001. In fact, if we believe the predictions of my colleague Edward Altman, we should not be surprised to see the number of “major” bankruptcies exceed 400 (see NYU’s Altman Sees 2009 Default Rate Doubling). Obviously default is not the same thing as bankruptcy; however, they trend together.

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

• AIG (insurance)****
• Agriprocessors, Inc. (food services)
• Aloha Airlines (airline)
• American Color Graphics (newspaper)
• Ascendia Brands (retail)
  
• ATA (airline)
• Bear Stearns (banking)****
• Bill Heard Enterprises (auto)
  
• Bluepoint RE (insurance)
  
• Blue Water Holdings (auto)
• Boscov’s (retail)
• Brooke Corporation (insurance)
  
• Buffets Holdings (restaurants)
• CDX Gas, LLC (energy)
• Chesapeake Corporation (packaging products)
  
• Ciena Capital (real estate)
• Circuit City (electronics retail)
  
• Comfort Co. (bedding)
• DBSI Inc. (real estate)
  
• Downey Financial (banking)
• Dreier LLP (legal services)
  
• Dynamic Leisure (travel)
• Eclipse Aviation (airplane manufacturer)
  
• Education Resource Institute (insurance)
• Empire Land (real estate)
• Eos Airlines (airline)
• Equity Media Holdings Corporation (media)
• EZ Lube, LLC (auto services)
  
• Fashion House Holdings (retail)
• Flying J (trucking and transportation services)
  
• Fortunoff (retail)
• Franklin Bank Corp. (banking)
  
• Friedman’s Jewelers (retail)
• Fred Leighton Holdings (retail)
• Fremont General (banking)
  
• Frontier Airlines (airline)
• Gainey Corporation (trucking)
  
• Gemini Air Cargo (air delivery/freight)
• GETRAG Transmission Manufacturing LLC (auto manufacturing)
  
• Goody’s (retail)
• Greatwide Logistics (trucking)
  
• Greektown Holdings (casino)
• Hawaiin Telecom Communications, Inc. (telecom)
  
• Hospital Partners of America (healthcare)
• HRP Myrtle Beach Holdings (entertainment)
  
• Indymac (banking)
• Integra Hospital Plano, LLC (healthcare)
• Integrity Bancshares, Inc. (banking)
  
• JHT Holdings (trucking/transportation)
• KB Toys, Inc. (retail)
• Key Plastics, LLC (auto manufacturer)
• Laketown Wharf (real estate)
• LandAmerica Financial Group (insurance)
  
• Land Resource, LLC (real estate)
  
• Landsource (real estate)
  
• Legends Gaming (casino)
• Lehman Brothers (banking)
• Lenox Group (tableware)
  
• Lillian Vernon (retail)
• Linens n’ Things (retail)
• Luminent Mortgage Capital (banking)
  
• Kimball Hill (real estate)
• Landsource Community Development (real estate)
• Matrix Development Corporation (real estate)
• Mervyn’s (retail)
• Mortgages Ltd. (banking)
• Motorcoach Industries International (transportation)
• MPC Corporation (computers)
  
• MPF Corp. (transportation)
• Mrs. Fields Famous Brands (food services)
• National Wholesale Liquidators, Inc. (retail)
• NetVersant Solutions (IT services)
  
• PFF Bancorp, Inc. (banking)
  
• Pierre Foods (food services)
• Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (food services)
  
• Pope & Talbot, Inc. (pulp/wood products)
• PPI Holdings, Inc. (auto manufacturer)
  
• PRC LLC (business services consulting)
• Propext (textiles)
• Quebecor World (USA), Inc. (office services/printing)
• Red Envelope (retail)
• Rock Well Petroleum, Inc. (energy)
  
• Sharper Image (retail)
• Silverjet Airlines (airline)
• Sirva (moving services)
• Skybus (airline)
• STA Restaurants – Bennigan’s (restaurants)
  
• Steakhouse Partners (restaurants)
• Steve and Barry’s (retail)
• Storm Cat Energy Corporation (energy)
• SunCal Bickford Ranch, LLC (real estate)
  
• Syntax-Brillian – Olevia (electronics)
• Taro Properties (real estate)
• Tribune Company (media)
  
• Tropicana (casinos)
• Vail Plaza Development (real estate)
• Value City Department Stores (retail)
• VeraSun Energy (alternative energy)
  
• Vicorp (restaurants)
• Village Homes of Colorado, Inc. (real estate)
  
• Washington Mutual (banking)
  
• WCI (real estate)
• Whitehall Jewelers (jewelry)
• WHM Copper Mountain Investments (investment company)
  
• Wickes Furniture (retail)
• Woodside Group (real estate)
• WorldSpace, Inc. (satellite broadcasting)
  
• Ziff Davis (media)

In addition to “major” bankruptcies (e.g., those firms with assets greater than $50M) tracked by Bankruptcydata, the U.S. government tracks all bankruptcy filings by type (e.g., Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 13). You can find detailed bankruptcy statistics at the U.S. Courts website. For the twelve months ending June 2008, there had been 33,822 business filings versus 23,889 for the same period in 2007 (a 42% increase).

The chart above presents annual (calendar year) business bankruptcy filings from 1990-2007 (click on the picture for a larger image). Interestingly, the number of filings had been trending steadily downward from 1990 through 2006. In 2007 the numbers started to reverse course. I expect that trend to continue in 2008 and 2009, with total business bankruptcies reaching 45,000 in 2008 and 55,000 in 2009. I will update these data when the final 2008 numbers are released, which should be sometime in March.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Bankruptcies, Corporate Strategy. 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.