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Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009

April 24, 2015

This article was sent to us by Glen Downs. It sheds a light on the number of companies that took on too much leverage and have filed for bankruptcy in Q1 2015… It ‘s the most since Q1 2009.

This should not be news to anyone who listens to our show or has been paying attention to the news.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — “Come down to Houston,” William Snyder, leader of the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, told Reuters. “You’ll see there is just a stream of consultants and bankruptcy attorneys running around this town.”

But it’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.

Must Read: Warren Buffett’s 7 Secrets to Dividend Investing

In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, according to data from bankruptcydata.com. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.

The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company of Caesars Entertainment (CZRGet Report). Next in line were Doral Financial (DRLCQ), security services firm Altegrity, RadioShack (RSHCQ), and Allied Nevada Gold (ANVGet Report). The first oil-and-gas company showed up in sixth place: Quicksilver Resources (KWKAQ). It joined privately owned natural-gas drillers in crushing their investors.

Among the largest 15 sinners on the list are five more oil-and-gas related companies, but all clustered in the lower half:

This isn’t the list of a single troubled sector that ran out of luck. This isn’t a single issue, such as the oil-price collapse. It’s a broader phenomenon: too much debt across a struggling economy. And now the reckoning has started.

The list only contains publicly traded companies that have already filed. But the energy sector, for example, is full of companies that are owned by private equity firms, such as natural gas driller Samson Resources, which warned in March that it might resort to bankruptcy to restructure its debt. Similar troubles are building up in other sectors.

While stockholders get wiped out and creditors at the lower end of the capital structure lose their shirts, restructuring specialists like Snyder in Houston are licking their chops. For years, the Fed’s flood of money kept these companies afloat no matter how badly they were leaking. Now reality is setting in. For restructuring specialists, opportunity has finally arrived.

Corporate bankruptcies are at one end of the spectrum. At the other end? The Fed is so worried that it conducted a workshop evocatively named, “Chapter 9 and Alternatives for Distressed Municipalities and States,” during which New York Fed President William Dudley warned about municipal bankruptcies.

Discussion
5 Comments
    Apr 24, 2015 24:23 AM

    The ‘where are we?’ road map is best described this way. (Discount rates of 50% should be seen as 5%)

    http://scharts.co/1Eo7QIN

    Apr 24, 2015 24:38 AM

    Maybe some of you already heard the following interview with Andrew Hoffman and Kerry Lutz where he spoke about bankruptcy risk in the miners. I will post it for anyone curious:

    Andrew said:

    “What’s happening in gold is a cataclysm from a business perspective. How long can they stay in business? Some of the mining stocks look like they are going to bankruptcy right now….Companies like Cour D’Alene, Kinross and Harmony and Goldfields. I mean there are major companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy”

    Andrew Hoffman – World Run Amok — Financial Survival Network with Kerry Lutz – April 22, 2015
    http://financialsurvivalnetwork.com/2015/04/andrew-hoffman-world-run-amuk/

    Apr 24, 2015 24:24 PM

    Make an EDITORIAL on BANKRUPTCIES AL CORY !!!!!!

    Apr 24, 2015 24:33 PM

    You can leverage up absolutely anything in this world today. Cash, stocks, bonds, Treasury holdings, labour, time, your income, insurance, homes, boats, cottages etcetera. Then there are options, margin accounts, currency trades, those derivatives we all love to hate……..need I go on?

    Everything is levered if you like it that way. Some trades go to high multiples.

    But if you own gold it seems its another story altogether. Gold as it turns out is worth less than market value if you want to pledge it as collateral at your friendly neighborhood bank and take a loan.

    But what if you are a country? That changes everything right?

    Well not if the name of your country is Venezuela where authorities there have just pledged a billion and a half dollars of their nations bullion hoard to Citibank for just two thirds of its value.

    Here is the story from GATA today:

    Venezuela pawns nearly $1 billion in gold reserves
    http://gata.org/node/15292