Enterprises established and bankruptcy proceedings in the information sector, 2002

For all Norwegian industries, the number of bankruptcy proceedings has been relatively stable in the period 1995-2001, but from 2001 to 2002 the number of bankruptcies increased by 25.6 per cent.

During the period 1997-2000 about 130 bankruptcies were registered each year. This corresponded to 3.8 per cent of all bankruptcies in the economy. From 2000 to 2001 the number of bankruptcies increased to 187 and in 2002 the ICT sector had 259 bankruptcies . The number of bankruptcies in the ICT sector constituted 5.8 per cent of all bankruptcies in the economy in 2002.

Most bankruptcies within consultancy

The majority of the bankruptcies were within ICT consultancy services, and this is also where the growth in bankruptcies has been largest during the last two years. In 2000 40 bankruptcies were opened within ICT consultancy services, and in 2001 and 2002 this number increased to106 and 139 bankruptcies respectively. Within ICT wholesale 103 bankruptcies were opened in 2002. These represent a growth of 47 per cent from the year before. ICT manufacturing had the greatest growth in per cent. In this industry the number of bankruptcies increased from 3 in 2001 to 12 in 2002. Within telecommunication the number of bankruptcies decreased from 8 in 2001 to 5 in 2002.

More than 800 employees affected by bankruptcy

In 2002 826 employees in the ICT sector were affected by bankruptcy, against 584 in 2001. The ICT sector's part of employees affected by bankruptcies constituted 6 per cent in 2002. This is a decline of 0.3 points of per cent from the year before. Of the employees affected by bankruptcy in 2002, 429 worked in ICT wholesale and 227 in ICT consultancy services. Within ICT manufacturing and telecommunications 97 and 73 employees were affected by bankruptcy. In 2000 0.34 per cent of the employees in the ICT sector were affected by bankruptcy, and this was considerably lower than in other industries. Simplified calculations show that this variable has increased to about 0.9 per cent in 2002. This is lower than in other industries such as Construction, Wholesale and Manufacturing. And it is considerably lower than in hotels and restaurants, where about 2.8 per cent of the employees were affected by bankruptcies.

Value of turnover in bankruptcy proceedings

The value of turnover in bankruptcies in the ICT sector was NOK 1 458 million in 2002 and 1170 million in 2000. The ICT sector's part of this changed from 11.6 per cent in 2001 to 6.5 per cent in 2002. In the period 1995-2002 the value of turnover in bankruptcies were greatest within ICT wholesale. In 2002 the value of turnover within this industry amounted to NOK 884 million,,an increase of 83 per cent from the year before.

Tables:

• Table 1 Number of bankruptcy proceedings
• Table 2 Employed in bankruptcy proceedings
• Table 3 Value of turnover in bankruptcy proceedings, in million NOK