US hit by wave of big ticket bankruptcies amidst Covid-19 pandemic

The United States (US) is witnessing a wave of bankruptcies of erstwhile storied names especially in the retail and energy sector due to Covid-19 pandemic. The bankruptcies this year due to Covid-19 have already gone past the number and volume seen in 2008, the year of the global Financial Crisis.

The biggest bankruptcy has been Hertz, the car rental company.

The bankruptcy list is dominated by sectors like restaurants, construction, real estate, healthcare, oil and gas, retail, transportation, agriculture, banking and financial services and telecom.

Major US retailers J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Gold’s Gym, True Religion Apparels, among others, have filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 (Reorganization Bankruptcy) of the US Bankruptcy Code in the past few months.

Analysts expect more bankruptcy filings in industries like retail and the energy sector, which have been hit by lower demand.

Chesapeake Energy, a shale oil company, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday. With assets of roughly $16.2 billion and liabilities of $11.8 billion, the filing represents the fourth-largest bankruptcy this year.

The other big bankruptcies include Latam Airlines, Frontier Communications, Intelsat, McDermott International, Whiting Petroleum, Avianca Holdings, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Extraction Oil and Gas, Hornbeck Offshore, Foresight Services, Unit Corporation, Chuck E Cheese, Stage Stores, LSC Communications, Quorum Health.