Bankruptcy Update
Friday, August 15th, 2008In 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.






