Valley bankruptcies up significantly from 2008 to 2009 - Phoenix Business Journal:

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In the first quarter, 46 companies filed for Chaptetr 11 reorganization or Chapter 7 or13 bankruptcy, up 44 percenr from the same period last according to the latest data compiled by investment bank LLC. A Chapter 11 filing allows a business to reorganize whild receiving protectionfrom creditors. The Phoenix office of is swampee with 25 to 30 pending Chapter11 cases, including Tempe home builder and Phoenix-baseed , which operates eight of its 11 vacationn properties in Arizona. “That’s a huge increase compared to saidJack Hebert, who heads the firm’s bankruptcy The real estate market declined even furthef in fourth-quarter 2008.
Because the Phoenix marketg is so heavily reliant on the realestatse sector, when it crashes, other businessed are swept away in the On the M&A front, Phoenix deals plummeter 59 percent, from 34 in first-quarter 2008 to 14 in the first quarter of this GHF Managing Director Paul Javnick said financinyg M&A deals is tough right now. It’sa difficult to get credit for dealseof $500 million or more, which rarely occudr in midsize markets such as because private equity firms can’t accessz debt to buy companies. In many cases, they’re optingv for minority ownership Small deals also aregetting squeezed.
To exacerbate consumer services, high-end restaurants and some othetr sectors are struggling to survive as consumer watchtheir spending. “Those kinds of dealsx are really struggling,” said Javnick, who splitd his time between Phoenix andthe firm’s headquarters in Minneapolis. “There’ds life in the market,” he said, but “it’se sector by sector.” Scottsdale-based LLC is seeingb a surge in business, particularly in strategiv buys. “We’re actually seeing a pretty strong marketyright now,” said Guy co-founder and managing director.
Strategicf buys typically are carried outby well-capitalized companies in the same or a complementaryg industry. Many of these players have been chasedd out of deals or priced out of the markeg during the past threde tofour years, but conditions have shiftesd in their favor. “Wee think ’09 is going to be relatively strong,” Downingh said. Greene Holcomb & Fisher LLC: Columbia West Capitalk LLC: