(Bloomberg) – When Home Group Inc.’s lawyer. He stood before a US bankruptcy judge last month asking to delete nearly $ 2 billion from the dealer’s debt, the reason was a hurry: Tariffs.
This is a line that is shown in more and more courtrooms. Mosaic COS tile importer. Accused them of recently submitted. Just weeks earlier, it was Marelli Holdings Co. and the aluminum merchant Sinobec Group Inc. Overall, the tariffs were exposed as a key cause in at least 10 bankruptcy in the United States since early April, when President Donald Trump first revealed a new wave of taxes, according to data composed by Bloomberg.
But for many economists and analysts, the game of tariff wines is not lingered – at least not. On the one hand, it is just too early that the most duties have had a significant impact on corporate results, especially for companies that usually carry an inventory for several months, they say. Moreover, the latest data showing solid employment growth, growing salaries and a constant low signal for unemployed rates that the economy is still retained.
This is the latest chapter in a well-worn corporate gaming book for bankruptcy, where companies rotate their collapse on everything-from non-permanent users to currency swings-even bad weather-all other, but not their wrong steps. While market observers say that tariffs could ultimately push a number of struggling companies across the edge, they are currently more viewed as an excuse for drawing deeper problems.
“The companies are fighting, but the tariffs did not put them bankrupt,” says Stephanie Roth, a chief economist at Wolfe Research. “Until the labor market begins to miss in a truly negative way, there is not much reason to believe that consumers should retreat or that the economy is weakening enough.”
Take home, which sells everything – from courtyard furniture to carpets to generic wall decor. His troubles began long before Trump’s last round of Trump’s tariffs.
Founded with high debt of loading after its ingestion since 2021 by the Hellman & Friedman Private Capital Company, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on supply chains has led to increasing costs of materials and labor.
As consumers focused on spending more on travel and leisure time, a reduction in demand for home goods has also unfolded, which led to a reduction in a rating of credit and exchange in a difficult position in 2023.
Last month, the Texas -based company said it would close at least 26 of its over 250 stores as part of its bankruptcy.
In his place, Rego Park in Queens, New York – the one who plans to close – customers who have encountered the summer heat in search of deals complaining his death.
“It’s a little sad to see this to go, because it’s so much easier to get something that matches your style,” says 22-year-old Diana Delacrus, who was looking at items when selling the store.
A home representative declined to comment.
Marelli, the auto parts supplier, for his part, said in a lawsuit that he was “heavily affected” by winds led by car rates deployed by the Trump administration in March.
But the company that provides lighting systems and suspension of the likes of Stellantis NV and Nissan Motor Co. is already struggling with the industry as electrification and automation are forcing car manufacturers to displace their strategy to cope with reducing sales of key markets.
“The market pressure affecting the entire automotive industry and the larger volumes of production that we began to see a year ago, long before the current tariffs were introduced, were the main problems that limited our working capital,” says Fernando Vivanko, CEO of Marelli Communications, email answers to questions.
Some companies have said that tariffs are just one of a number of reasons they have been fighting. In its submission in June, Sunnova Energy International Inc. He stated that the reduction of state subsidies, inflation and higher interest rates restrict the demand for their equipment – as long as he mentions that the last tariffs are another obstacle.
Prominent names in the sector, including Sunpower Corp., Lumio and Meyer Burger Technology, US operations have also applied for bankruptcy in the last year.
A representative of Sunnova declined to comment outside the bankruptcy submission.
Market observers say that, depending on how current Trump administration negotiations play, tariffs could eventually play a much more role in the bankruptcy in the coming months. The latest economic indicators – consumer costs, retail sales, factory activity of the United States – already show a dent in demand against the background of uncertainty of policy. The number of companies with the highest risk of default is on an 11-month peak, Moody ratings said in a report earlier this week
However, the general damage of companies has been contained so far. The S&P Global Ratings said earlier this month that only 31 cuts in credit ratings in recent months have been tied to tariffs, less than 1% of its total rating actions.
So far, some say that if the restructuring plans have already been in the process of work, Trump’s levies may have just served as a motivation to file bankruptcy more recently.
Some of these “smells of private capitals who can use the laws of bankruptcy to facilitate the restructuring of a business they want to retain but have an unstable weight on debt,” says Todd Baker, a senior associate at the Center for Business, Law and Public Policy in Colombia.
– With the help of the Church Stephen.
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