Story Archives of 'Bankruptcy'

Personal and business bankruptcies continue to climb. October saw a total of 466. The New Hampshire Business Review has been doing a good job of tracking this. NHBR's Bob Sanders writes that 14 businesses filed, including Spaulding Hill Development and Hawkview Estates, both of Nashua.

Sanders has been doing the math. He writes that the running total is 4,324, 34 percent more than the number of bankruptcies filed by this time last year.

The total number of bankruptcy filings in September was 443, essentially unchanged from the month before. 387 were classed as non-business filings; there were 56 business filings.

See the US Bankruptcy Court monthly details.

The NHBR notes two slightly encouraging shifts. The number of bankruptcies dropped by 10% between July and August. But as the NHBR points out, the 450 or so bankruptcies is 45% above August 2008. Read the full report along with a selection of some of the companies that filed for protection here.

The US Bankruptcy Court in Manchester received 494 filings in July, which is a fifty-percent increase from July 2008. This July also marked the most bankruptcies of any month since 2005, when an expected change in the law prompted a spike in filings. Bankruptcies so far this year are thirty-one-percent higher than they were at this point last year. Sixteen of those that filed were businesses, which is the highest monthly total so far this year.

There were 428 bankrupcty filings in May, as reported by the New Hampshire Business Review. That includes 14 businesses seeking protection from creditors. Eyeballing the list in the NHBR article, real estate and construction related firms clearly predominate.

NHBR's Bob Sanders is always on the case! Thanks, Bob.

Read the full article and see the list of firms here.

A WSJ article caught my eye. When General Growth Properties filed for Chapter 11 protection in March, local news reports stated that the move would not affect the 166 malls owned by GGP. But life might be more complicated. Through some adroit maneuvers, GGP has positioned itself to pull those malls into bankruptcy with it. It's stated goal, according to the WSJ, is gain more leverage over its creditors to extend the terms of their loans.

The April numbers from the US Bankruptcy Court show 470 new filings. That's basically unchanged since from March when 473 filings were made. A year ago April, the number was 308. A year before that, it was 237.