Bankruptcy auctions in Italy, the activities of the courts zone by zone

In the first eight months of the year, the number of new bankruptcy proceedings increased by 9% in the top twenty bankruptcy court sections by volume of activity. This is according to Cherry Srl's observatory, Cherry Sea, which shows that from January to August 2023 the workload related to bankruptcy proceedings increased significantly.

Enforcement proceedings in Italy

Cherry Sea analyses the top twenty sections by volume of activity, namely: Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Brescia, Busto Arsizio, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Modena, Monza, Naples, Padua, Rome, Turin, Treviso, Venice, Verona and Vicenza.

The study shows how, at a national level, the total number of new proceedings opened (adding judicial liquidations to bankruptcies prior to the reform of the Crisis and Insolvency Code-CCII) increased by 9% against 2,628 cases, divided into 2,435 judicial liquidations and 193 bankruptcies in which more than 2/3 of the total (amounting to 131, of which 121 in the first four months of the year alone) registered in the Court of Rome alone.

They are closely followed by Milan with 9 (compared to 404 in 2022) and Bari and Turin with 7. This is a significant figure as it shows that the Palace of Justice in Rome has such a high workload that in the first two quarters of 2023 it found itself in the position of still having to open bankruptcy proceedings as an aftermath of the year 2022.

Judicial Liquidations and Bankruptcies in 2023 Cherry Sea

Enforcement procedures, the heaviest burden on courts

Therefore, contemplating both bankruptcies and judicial liquidations, and analysing the individual courts studied in the first two quarters of 2023, Rome and Milan are confirmed as the first in terms of total proceedings opened - respectively 461 for +6% compared to the same period in 2022 and 446 for +10% - followed at a distance by Turin (192, +23%) and Padua (126, +70%), while at the back are Genoa (67 against only judicial liquidations and with +91% between the first and second four-month periods of 2023), Bologna (70, -7%) and Vicenza (72, -13%).

The largest increase was recorded in the courts of Treviso (+129% for a total of 94 proceedings, including 4 bankruptcies and 90 judicial liquidations) and Busto Arsizio (+85%).

In contrast, the Court of Florence recorded a significant drop of 26%, followed by Catania (-23%), Verona (-14%) and Vicenza (-13%).

Pending bankruptcies and liquidations

Instead, in relation to theCourts with the most voluminous stock of pending bankruptcies and judicial liquidations (22,283 bankruptcies, -17% compared to 26,695 in December 2022, and 4.317 judicial liquidations), as at 31 August 2023 these are confirmed to be those of Rome (4,747), Milan (3,023) and Bari (1,490), while at the bottom of the ranking are the bankruptcy sections of Modena (434), Busto Arsizio (524) and Genoa with (596).

In this context, as demonstrated above with the striking case of the Court of Rome, the old bankruptcy procedures still remain, so much so that in the first eight months of 2023, 4,428 bankruptcy procedures were closed, +4% compared to the same period of the previous year, of which 855 in Milan (-2% compared to the same period of 2022), 578 in Rome (+18%) and 276 in Naples (+38%). This shows that, despite the intervention of the CCII reform, the Courts will still be busy for a few years to clear the bankruptcies accumulated in past years.

In particular, the data observed show that, unlike Central and Southern Italy, which recorded an increase of 18% and 17% respectively in the total number of bankruptcies finalised during the period under review, Northern Italy settled at an overall -4% (with a peak of -29% at the Court of Bergamo).

Judicial liquidations in 2023 Cherry Sea

Judicial liquidations

On the other hand, analysing the Courts under study only for judicial liquidations opened between January and August 2023, that of Milan ranks first with 437 cases, followed by Rome (330), Turin (185), Bergamo and Padua (both with 121), while at the tail end we find Genoa (67) and Bologna (68) and Vicenza (69).

The most significant growth figure, however, is that of Verona, which recorded +93% between the two quarters under study. Conversely, the courts of Catania (-31%) and Treviso (-27%) suffered the biggest drop.

Enforcement procedures area by area in Italy

Finally, looking at the regional level, in the first two quarters of the year, 4,754 judicial liquidations were reported (2,167 from January to May and 2,587 from June to August for a +19%). In detail, Lombardy came first with 978 new files opened, followed by Lazio (540) and Veneto (436), while the lowest figures were recorded in Molise (25), Basilicata (34) and Trentino-Alto Adige (40).

The impact of the reform of the Business Crisis Code

The data presented by the latest Cherry Sea Observatory therefore offer interesting insights for the sector, allowing for an assessment of the economic-legal dynamics that influence business decisions, all through a combination of quantitative data and geographical analysis for a comprehensive perspective on the health of companies in our country.

"It is still too early to assess the impact of the new Business Crisis and Insolvency Code on justice time, but we can nevertheless dwell on the volumes of proceedings that were the protagonists of these first two quarters of the year. The reform will certainly act on the 'modalities' of justice, but for now the data tell us that it is not affecting the number of procedures,' comments Giacomo Fava, Lead AI Engineer at Cherry Srl. 'In 2023, in fact, the number of judicial liquidations that arose was in line with the number of bankruptcies in 2022 and then exceeded them in volume in the last few months (June-August). The data also provide us with an important territorial insight into how procedures are being distributed, with the regions most affected appearing to be those producing the most. From the data, we also note how some courts have embraced the new CCII more quickly than others, which, almost a year after the new law was passed, are still registering new bankruptcies as a remnant of the large load accumulated in previous years.