Rome, March 26, 2026 – The use of negotiated settlements for corporate crises—a voluntary, out-of-court process for the restructuring of companies in crisis that still have the potential to remain in business—has grown by nearly 70% in one year: 1,776 applications were filed in 2025, compared to 1,048 in 2024. Today, accounting for 13.2% of all proceedings initiated, the Negotiated Settlement represents the primary option sought by companies facing difficulties.
Overall, the number of corporate crisis procedures initiated last year increased by 15.5% compared to 2024, reaching nearly 13,500. Among these, judicial liquidation is the most common, with 9,869 procedures opened last year, up 7.2% from 2024.
This is what the Unioncamere Business Crisis Observatory reveals in its fourth report, which focuses on analyzing the institutions and procedures of the Business Crisis and Insolvency Code for the year 2025.
It is encouraging to see that the use of negotiated settlements for resolving corporate crises is growing steadily – emphasizes Unioncamere President Andrea Prete. – This tool, in fact, offers real opportunities for companies to resolve difficult situations and remain in the market. It is also an advantage in terms of maintaining employment levels.
Negotiated Settlement
Among the companies that have utilized the Negotiated Settlement procedure, corporations predominate (accounting for 79% of the total). The most represented sectors are manufacturing (28.5%), wholesale and retail trade (21%), and construction (10.2%). The average size of companies using this tool continues to grow over time. At the end of 2025, the average production value of companies that filed for this process exceeded 16 million euros (compared to 10 million in 2024), while the average number of employees was 40.
Simplified Composition Agreement
The 143 procedures recorded (up 68.2% from 85 in 2024) involve companies with an average of 16 employees and a production value of 7 million euros. The largest number of applications comes from the wholesale and retail trade sector (27.3%).
Preventive Arrangement
The 895 preventive arrangements initiated in 2025 (up 17.5% from 2024) show an average of 32 employees per company and approximately €7 million in production value.
Debt Restructuring Agreement
The use of this mechanism also increased by 6.7%, with 348 proceedings initiated compared to 326 in the previous year. In this case, the average production value of the companies is €11 million, while the number of employees is 89.
Court-Supervised Liquidation
With an average of 8 employees per company and an average production value of 3 million euros, court-supervised liquidation remains the most commonly used insolvency procedure among the most vulnerable and least structured companies. Among the most represented sectors are construction (21.9%), followed by wholesale and retail trade (21.8%) and manufacturing (16.7%).
Administrative Compulsory Liquidation
Last year, 439 companies resorted to this procedure (an 86% increase compared to 2024), with a clear predominance of cooperatives, consortia, and consortium companies operating primarily in healthcare and social assistance (21.6%) and in administrative and support services (13.1%).
