Insolvency 2025

FRANCE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Anne-Sophie Noury, Alicia Bali and Saam Golshani, White & Case

White & Case 19 Place Vendôme 75001 Paris France

Tel: +33 1 55 04 15 15 Fax: +33 1 55 04 15 16 Email: anne-sophie.noury@whitecase.com Web: www.whitecase.com

General Panorama and Market Overview In 2025, France’s restructuring and insolvency envi - ronment stands at a turning point. The surge in pro - ceedings observed in 2023 and 2024 – driven largely by the withdrawal of COVID-era support measures and the gradual repayment of state-guaranteed loans (PGE) – has not yet fully eased. Instead, the market has stabilised at historically high levels, with more than 68,000 insolvency cases recorded on a 12-month rolling basis. This plateau illustrates a deeper struc - tural fragility: although the pace of new insolvency proceedings has slowed, the underlying pressures on companies remain, and the profile of those entering into distress is shifting. One of the most notable developments is that insol - vency is now increasingly reaching larger companies, including mid-sized and in some cases large corpo - rates. At the same time, sectoral trends are evolving une - venly. While some consumer-facing industries, such as retail apparel and construction, are still facing a significant number of proceedings, they are beginning to show tentative signs of recovery after the shocks of the past three years, whereas other segments of the economy – including automotive suppliers, parts of the chemical industry, and healthcare and social services – continue to face substantial structural dif - ficulties and remain under significant strain.

Data, Regional Trends and Sectoral Dynamics First quarter of 2025 The first quarter of 2025 confirmed that France has entered a period of persistently high, though more stabilised, levels of insolvency. A total of 17,845 proceedings were opened between January and March, a figure that remains historically elevated. However, the year-on-year increase of 4.4% marks a clear deceleration compared with the steep growth rates recorded in recent years, such as the 53% surge observed at the end of the first half of 2023. The distribution of proceedings shows a modest rise across all categories: 373 safeguard proceedings were initiated (+7% year on-year), 5,077 reorganisa - tions were opened (+7%) and 12,395 direct liquida - tions were pronounced (+3.3%). Regional disparities remain significant. Insolvency activity rose sharply in the Pays-de-la-Loire and Cor - sica regions, which recorded year-on-year increases of 22% and 28%, respectively. By contrast, Ile-de- France only registered a limited increase of 3%, while regions such as Grand Est, Bourgogne-Franche- Comté, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Centre-Val- de-Loire demonstrated relative resilience, with slower growth in defaults. From a sectoral standpoint, the pressures of early 2025 have not been uniform. Consumer-facing busi - nesses showed mixed results. Apparel wholesalers, which had suffered heavily during the pandemic and the subsequent inflationary wave, showed signs of improvement, with defaults decreasing by 19% com - pared with the same period in 2024.

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