The elevated pace of large corporate bankruptcy filings that began in early 2023 has persisted over the last 12 months (2H 2024–1H 2025) and even increased over the prior year. The most common reported drivers have been high inflation and interest rates, reduced consumer demand, and shifts in public policy. Out-of-court restructurings involving liability management transactions have also intensified in frequency and complexity.
BANKRUPTCY FILING TRENDS
A total of 117 large companies filed for bankruptcy in the last 12 months (2H 2024–1H 2025), an increase of 4% from 113 in the prior 12 months (2H 2023–1H 2024). This is 44% above the 2005–2024 annual average of 81 bankruptcies.
There were 32 large bankruptcy filers with assets over $1 billion (mega bankruptcies) in the last 12 months, up from 24 in the prior 12 months and well above the 2005–2024 annual average of 23.
Of the mega bankruptcy filers, 61% identified reduced demand and/or increasing costs due to high inflation as one of the factors for their financial insolvency.
The Manufacturing and Services industries continued to experience an elevated number of bankruptcies, representing a combined 54% of filings in the last 12 months.
OUT-OF-COURT TRENDS
The use of liability management transactions (LMTs) among financially distressed firms as an out-of-court restructuring tool reached a record level, with 46 completed transactions in 2024 and 27 in 1H 2025.
BANKRUPTCY VENUES
Consistent with recent years, Delaware and the Southern District of Texas remained the two most common venues for large company bankruptcy filings. The Northern District of Texas surpassed the Southern District of New York for the first time during 2005-1H2025 and became the third most common venue (tied with New Jersey) for the first time since 2012.
Note: For companies where exact asset values are not known, the lower bound of the estimated range is used. Asset values are not adjusted for inflation. Mega bankruptcies are defined as those for companies with over $1 billion in reported assets at the time of their bankruptcy filings.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Cornerstone Research.
