Bankruptcy filings in Puerto Rico up 68% Y-O-Y in October
The number of filings in October from individuals and businesses seeking protection from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Puerto Rico totaled 429, up a whopping 68% when compared to the 256 filings for the same month last year.
A report released by research firm Boletín de Puerto Rico shows that 3,602 cases have been filed in the first 10 months of this year, up 13.8% from the 3,164 cases on record for the same period in 2022.
The bulk of the current filings so far this year, 2,425, came from individuals seeking Chapter 13 protection, which allows individuals to propose a debt reorganization plan under the bankruptcy court’s supervision. That number is up 20.3% when compared to the 2,015 cases filed in the same period last year. Furthermore, the category represented 67.3% of all cases filed during the first 10 months of 2023.
Chapter 7 filings, which involve a total liquidation of assets for petitioners, totaled 1,118 from January through October this year, a slight 2.1% jump from the 1,095 petitions in the same period in 2022. The report shows that this category constituted 31% of the petitions filed this year.
As for Chapter 11 cases, which let businesses reorganize their finances under the court’s supervision, there were 55 filed in the current period, up 22.2% when compared to the 45 cases on record from January to October 2022.
Four Chapter 12 filings, a category reserved for farmers and agricultural businesses, were reported so far this year. That is 55.6% lower than the nine petitions filed in the same period in 2022.
Corporate bankruptcy petitions up 11.1%
Meanwhile, bankruptcy protection petitions from the island’s businesses were up 11.1% through October 2023, with 230 cases filed, compared to the 207 on record for January-October 2022.
Among the petitions filed were those from Landmar Commercial Center Development, which cited $8.6 million in debt; Hotel Flor del Valle, with $10.1 million in debt; and Azure Development, with $3.2 million in debt.
