Study: Austria’s companies facing the next stress test

The local businesses are facing the next stress test. The peak is in the second half of the year Restructuring wave Almost half of the experts at local banks are convinced. Rising energy and material costs as well as a weak economy (22 percent each) are the most important Stress factorsemerges from an EY survey among restructuring and turnaround experts at European banks.

Around 47 percent of Austrian respondents assume that the peak of the restructuring wave will be reached in the second half of the year. Another 21 percent expect the restructuring and redevelopment to peak in the first half of next year.

Multiple stress factors

“Many companies are not faced with a single problem, but rather with multiple burdens at the same time: high costs, weaker demand, geopolitical uncertainty and sometimes limited financing flexibility,” said Jürgen Kogler, partner at EY-Parthenon Austria. “This makes restructuring more complex – and increases the pressure to develop realistic scenarios at an early stage.”

According to the experts at the banks, individual sectors are significantly more affected. This primarily includes the automotive sector, but retail is also struggling with the current situation. The real estate industry is still under pressure, even if it is no longer as strong as in previous surveys. But the situation is also challenging for the construction and building materials sectors as well as the manufacturing industry.

“The pressure in the automotive sector affects entire value chains – from suppliers to production companies to industry-related service providers,” says Ben Trask, partner at EY-Parthenon Austria. “At the same time, developments in retail show that weak consumer sentiment and high cost burdens are increasingly also affecting consumer-related sectors.”

New credit agreements

When restructuring a company, loan agreements are still often adjusted. But the insolvency or liquidation of a company is also becoming more important for the first half of 2026, with 18 percent of those surveyed citing these measures as the most common solution. But corporate mergers and takeovers are also becoming more important.

“When business models are under structural pressure, a combination of financial reorganization, operational restructuring and strategic decisions is often required – including sales, carve-outs (spin-off of a division, note) or orderly insolvency proceedings,” says Kogler. The survey shows that banks would continue to rely on out-of-court and consensual solutions. What is particularly important to the institutions is that the owners do their part in the restructuring.

A credible business plan is also an important factor for banks to support restructuring. Only then does the question arise for the banks as to what the credit metrics and the ability to repay debts look like.