Madrid/Palma.A Dun & Bradstreet (D&B)report said yesterday that 28'851 firms have closed in Spain since January this year. The number of companies finally shutting down business altogether during the first 11 months of 2012 totals 7'357 and the figure has increased from January to November by 18% in comparison with the same period in 2011, says D&B.
Companies which are now no longer operating once employed a total of 109'773 people and claimed income of 30'216 million euros a year.
In November alone, there were 873 requests for companies to go into administration, a number which once again breaks the 800 mark and nears the previous month's all-time record of 892.
Madrid is the region with the highest number of companies going bust, 5'178 since January and 523 in November, followed by Andalucia with 3'331 bankrupt companies accumulated over the past year.
Not all companies which go bankrupt request to go into receivership. Catalonia was the region which had the most requests from companies wanting to go into administration between January and November, 1'559, followed by Valencia with 1'086 and Madrid, 933. Between the three of them, these regions represent half of all bankruptcy proceedings in Spain.
The Balearics was the only region of the country which registered less requests to go into administration during the first 11 months of this year, a downturn of 12% compared with the number lodged from January to November in 2011.
The sector which registered the most amount of bankruptcies was the Commerce sector, 4'941 accumulated over 11 months and 469 in November. Next on the list were construction and property industries with 4'156 and 3'987 respectively. Positive news however is that 81'193 new companies have been created in Spain since January this year, 4% more than over the same period last year. This year, the average monthly amount of companies being created has been 7'381 compared to 7'067 last year. D&B said that the number of new firms created by the end of this year will be the highest since 2007 but invested capital is 63% less than in 2011.