"More companies will go bust in Hungary’s construction sector in 2010 than in 2009, company information hub Opten projected on Tuesday. Although the rise in the number of construction businesses under bankruptcy proceedings was slightly less dramatic in January 2010 than a year earlier, there has been a virtually uninterrupted increase since Q3 2008.The number of liquidation proceedings launched by creditors against construction companies has been steadily high in Hungary since the third quarter of 2008, Opten said.
There were 25% less construction firms established in 2009 than in 2008 and there was a 10% yr/yr drop in this regard in January 2010, Opten said.
It may be regarded as a positive development, though that the number of companies deleted from the registrar has grown further in January, which means these firms are gone for good, said Hajnalka Csorbai, Opten’s strategic director. "If these owners do not reappear in the economy almost at once with a newly established company, the cleansing of the sector may start, even if the process demands such "painful" sacrifices," she added.
A total of 5,307 companies in the construction segment "vanished" from the scene in 2009, up from 4,436 in 2008. Looking at the respective January numbers, which are higher than in the same month of 2009, the trend is likely to continue this year, as well, Opten projects."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
18.02.2010