Insolvency 2025

ROMANIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Stan Tîrnoveanu and Alexandru Iorgulescu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law

Trends in insolvency and reorganisation proceedings

decrease in demand for housing, which will become more expensive. On the other hand, the new meas - ures limit state spending by allowing the rescheduling of already committed projects (ie, delay or realloca - tion) or the re-evaluation of new projects, in the field of large infrastructure financed or co-financed by the state (a field that has seen record developments in recent years). The possibility of payment delays, con - struction site freezes or phasing of public projects in the coming years will put pressure on large compa - nies, in particular, but the risk of insolvency may also increase with regard to the subcontractors of con - struction material producers. Agribusiness Agriculture is a field that is experiencing a gener - al growth trend due to the merger of land surfaces into increasingly larger farms, but also through the increase in mechanisation and the development of the irrigation system abandoned after 1990. The sec - tor remains heavily subsidised, both through the sys - tem of direct payments granted to farmers through support schemes within the European Commission’s common agricultural policy and also through state aid schemes. The forecast for the agricultural year 2025 indicates a record production of wheat and rapeseed, a moment of respite after several years of drought, with producers hoping the sector will return to a level close to that of 2021. However, data from the Trade Registry indicates that the number of newly opened insolvencies in agribusiness in the first half of 2025 remains at a level close to 2024, with several com - panies going directly into bankruptcy in 2025, mostly due to increasing production costs, difficulty access - ing finance, and competition with cheaper and gener - ally lower-quality products from Ukraine that flooded the market.

The weak growth of the economy in the first half of the year (+0.3%) compared to last year, but also the increase in inflation with some months of 2025 already reaching 9%, is a worrying context for Romanian companies. The fiscal-budgetary measures to reduce the deficit, although largely necessary, are in turn a risk factor, since they affect purchasing power. In turn, the consumption that played an important role in eco - nomic growth in the last year will visibly decrease as a result of the increase in VAT, and the increase in excise duties and some taxes (ie, profit and dividend taxes). Among the measures to avoid recession, the NBR governor has stressed that an acceleration of the absorption of European funds is essential, but the packages of measures recently adopted will generate at least a delay in some large investment projects, the priority being the completion of those financed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) that have reached an advanced stage of implementation. Estimates from last year regarding the increase in the number of insolvencies were confirmed, as 2024 ended with 7,274 new procedures, compared to 6,650 in 2023, an increase of 9%. The effects of the fiscal-budgetary measures of July– August 2025 will probably be felt in 2026, when all the provisions will be in force, so it is anticipated that there will be a higher number of insolvencies throughout 2025 compared to 2024 (but not significantly) with a more pronounced increase in number, but also in the magnitude of the phenomenon (through the increase in the volume of the debts of the companies that will enter insolvency) following in 2026. As far as the insol - vencies of individuals are concerned, no spikes are anticipated in 2025, but the number of preventative procedures is expected to reach several hundred per year (from 175 in 2024), an aspect that may contribute to mitigating the number of insolvencies.

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