One large company went under every 18 hours in 2025.
Accordingly to Allianz Trade Research’s latest data, insolvencies of large companies (annual turnover over EUR50 million) reached record high in the last quarter of 2025 (147 cases) as well as for the full year (475 cases), translating to roughly one case every 18 hours. The combined turnover of these major insolvent companies amounted to EUR208 billion, an increase of 12% over previous year.
Though Western Europe stood out in the global count of major insolvencies (311 cases), the biggest cases were registered in the Americas and China, combining for 17 of the top 20 insolvencies last year. While large firms are often more exposed to global issues – from fragmentation and shifting trade patterns to geopolitical tensions, digital disruption and structural transformations of various sectors – these major insolvencies are fuelling the risk of a domino effect due to their extensive supplier networks, potentially boosting insolvencies among smaller firms.
Services, construction and retail lead the major insolvencies count at 44%
In absolute terms, services (83 cases) and retail (63 cases) were the most affected sectors, particularly in Western Europe and North America, along with construction (64 cases), especially in Western Europe and Asia. The construction sector stood out with the largest severity in terms of turnover (EUR824 million on average for 64 cases), due to large cases in China, followed by automotive (EUR792 million on average for 33 cases), retail (EUR765 million on overage for 63 cases) and transportation (EUR512 million on average for 11 cases).
In relative terms, the most affected sectors were chemicals, automotive, machinery & equipment, computers & telecom and electronics. Among which, chemicals, machinery & equipment and computers & telecoms saw a large increase compared to 2024 and a high number of cases in comparison to the past decade’s average, followed to a lesser extent by automotive, textile and electronics. This suggests that these sectors are facing more difficulties or rising weaknesses and may require more attention globally.
