A company goes bust every 19 minutes

The figure sounds like a headline, and it is one. But it can also be checked. The German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports 2,266 corporate insolvency filings for June 2026. A 30-day month has 43,200 minutes. Divided by 2,266, that makes one insolvency every 19.1 minutes — around the clock, including nights and weekends.

Behind each of these numbers are people: owners who spent years building something, employees, suppliers left with unpaid invoices. And almost always a crisis that announced itself long before. This article puts the figures into context and shows where companies can act while they still have room for manoeuvre.

The arithmetic behind the number

A single month exaggerates. Over longer periods the picture is somewhat less dramatic, but not reassuring:

• First half of 2026: 12,812 corporate insolvencies — one every 20 minutes
• Full year 2025: 24,064 corporate insolvencies — one every 22 minutes

A note on method: Destatis only counts a filing once the court has made its first decision on it. There are about three months between filing and statistics, so the June figure mainly reflects filings from the spring.

More recent signals come from the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), which only covers partnerships and corporations. For August 2026 it counts 1,525 insolvencies — 10% fewer than in July, but 9% more than in August 2025 and 63% more than the August average for 2016 to 2019. That is no all-clear.

The highest level in more than a decade

The Destatis time series shows how steeply the numbers rose after the pandemic years:

• 2019: 18,749
• 2021: 13,993
• 2022: 14,590
• 2023: 17,814
• 2024: 21,812
• 2025: 24,064

In 2025 the figure was 10.3% higher than the year before, the highest since 2014 and 28% above the pre-pandemic level. With an increase of 6.7%, the first half of 2026 was the strongest half-year since 2013. Credit insurer Allianz Trade expects around 24,650 cases for 2026 as a whole and hardly any easing in 2027.

Destatis put creditors' expected claims for 2025 at €47.9 billion. Credit agency Creditreform estimates that around 285,000 employees were affected by their employer's insolvency in 2025.

Who is affected

Not all sectors are affected equally. In 2025 there were on average 69 insolvencies per 10,000 companies. Well above that were:

• Transport and storage: 133
• Hospitality: 108
• Construction: 104

Size matters too. According to the IfM Bonn, two thirds of the companies that became insolvent in 2025 had no employees; only 263 had more than 100. The headline is therefore carried mainly by small firms. Large cases are rarer, but each affects hundreds or thousands of jobs and entire supply chains.

Why companies fail

An insolvency is rarely a sudden event. It is usually the end point of a crisis that unfolds in stages: first the business model loses strength, then sales and earnings collapse, and only at the very end does the cash run out. Anyone who reacts only when the account is empty has already lost most of their options.

The current pressures are well known. Creditreform cites high operating and energy costs, higher borrowing costs, a lack of financing, bureaucracy and the consequences of geopolitical conflicts. In a 2025 survey by consultancy AlixPartners, 97% of German respondents see geopolitical disruption as a trigger for restructurings. 61% name securing liquidity as the biggest hurdle in restructurings.

One finding from the same survey is particularly revealing: 86% are convinced that financing measures alone do not solve operational problems. Fresh money buys time. The causes still have to be tackled.

An older study whose patterns still hold points in the same direction. In a 2006 survey of 125 insolvency administrators by Euler Hermes and the Centre for Insolvency and Restructuring at the University of Mannheim, 79% cited a lack of controlling as a cause, 76% financing gaps and 64% weak receivables management.

What German law requires of management

Since the introduction of the Corporate Stabilisation and Restructuring Act (StaRUG), early crisis detection is explicitly regulated. Under Section 1 StaRUG, directors must continuously monitor developments that could jeopardise the company's continued existence. If they identify such developments, they must take countermeasures and inform the supervisory bodies. Under Section 102 StaRUG, tax advisers, auditors and lawyers preparing annual financial statements must point out obvious grounds for insolvency.

Two periods are decisive:

• 24 months: the period usually used to assess whether illiquidity is imminent (Section 18 of the Insolvency Code, InsO).
• 12 months: the period over which the going-concern forecast must hold when over-indebtedness is at issue (Section 19 InsO).

In practice, a rolling 13-week liquidity plan has proved its worth. It is not mandatory, but it makes bottlenecks visible before they become acute.

Deadlines that are not a grace period

If a company is illiquid or over-indebted, management must file for insolvency without culpable delay. Section 15a InsO sets upper limits: no later than three weeks after illiquidity occurs and no later than six weeks after over-indebtedness occurs.

These deadlines are often misunderstood. They are not a waiting period that may be used up. If a restructuring is clearly hopeless within that time, the filing must be made immediately. Late filing is a criminal offence. In addition, once insolvency has occurred, directors may in principle no longer make payments (Section 15b InsO) and are otherwise personally liable.

The tools — and when they apply

Out-of-court restructuring

As long as the company is solvent, every route is open: operational measures, negotiations with banks and suppliers, new financing, a new shareholder, the sale of business units. No court, no publicity. This route is the most effective — and it narrows a little more with every week.

StaRUG restructuring plan

A restructuring plan allows liabilities to be reorganised with a 75% majority in each creditor group, even against individual creditors. A court can suspend enforcement for up to three months, in exceptional cases up to eight. However, this route is only available as long as illiquidity is imminent and has not yet occurred. It is rarely used: surveys count 84 proceedings in 2024 and 87 in 2025.

Self-administration and protective shield proceedings

Self-administration (Section 270a InsO) and protective shield proceedings (Section 270d InsO) allow management to restructure the company itself under the supervision of a custodian. For the protective shield, illiquidity must not yet have occurred, an expert certificate is required and the insolvency plan must be presented within no more than three months. Important: both are insolvency proceedings. They do not prevent insolvency; they shape it. According to the IfM Bonn, more than 500 self-administration proceedings were approved for the first time in 2025.

Why earlier is better

An older Destatis analysis shows how little is left in standard insolvency proceedings: on average, creditors recovered only 6.1% of their claims in corporate insolvencies. The figure relates to proceedings opened in 2011 and concluded by 2018. It still shows why any solution before insolvency almost always preserves more value.

What companies should do now

1. Plan liquidity weekly, on a rolling basis over at least 13 weeks, with honest assumptions.
2. Watch early indicators: incoming orders, margins, receivables periods, utilisation of credit lines.
3. Name the causes rather than just financing the symptoms. Raising new money alone only postpones the problem.
4. Involve stakeholders early: banks, credit insurers and key suppliers and customers respond better to a plan than to a surprise.
5. Use the window while illiquidity is only imminent. That is when out-of-court solutions and StaRUG are still available.
6. Think capital and execution together: a new shareholder or investor who also takes on operational responsibility often changes the situation more than yet another report.
7. Know the deadlines and seek legal advice in good time. Directors' personal liability is not a theoretical risk.

Where Evoraxia comes in

We step in where others walk away. We bring our own capital and invest it ourselves — as equity and debt. We take on responsibility at C-level, for example as Chief Restructuring Officer or in management, and we have the operational resources of our own manufacturing companies. Capital, mandate and people from a single source.

The earlier a conversation takes place, the more options there are. A first contact is confidential and without obligation.

---

This article is for general information only and does not replace legal or tax advice. If insolvency is imminent or has occurred, qualified legal advice must be sought without delay. Figures as of September 2026; the legal framework described is German law.