Half of Europe’s Smaller Businesses Risk Bankruptcy Within Year

Over half of Europe’s small and medium-sized businesses say they face bankruptcy in the next year if revenues don’t pick up, underscoring the breadth of damage wrought by the Covid-19 crisis.

One in five companies in Italy and France anticipate filing for insolvency within six months, according to a McKinsey & Co. survey in August of more than 2,200 SMEs in Europe’s five largest economies. Such businesses are key to the region, accounting for more than two-thirds of the workforce and more than half of the economic value-added.