Closing a business, recovery rate (cents on the dollar) by country
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recouped by creditors through the bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings. The calculation takes into account whether the business emerges from the proceedings as a going concern as well as costs and the loss in value due to the time spent closing down. If the...
What the numbers show
Closing a business, recovery rate (cents on the dollar) is currently reported for 44 countries. The highest value is 64.8 cents on the dollar in Botswana; the lowest is 0.1 cents on the dollar in Zimbabwe.
The median across all reporting countries is 25.45 cents on the dollar, and the mean is 24.59 cents on the dollar.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 648.
Over the past decade 34 countries rose and 9 fell. The largest increase was in Angola (up 1,500.0%), and the largest decrease in Zimbabwe (down 98.9%).
Closing a business, recovery rate: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Botswana | 64.8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 21.3% | rising |
| 2 | Tunisia | 52 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 2.0% | flat |
| 3 | Namibia | 42.3 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 9.6% | rising |
| 4 | Algeria | 41.7 cents on the dollar | 2012 | unchanged | flat |
| 5 | Mauritius | 40.9 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 19.2% | rising |
| 6 | Seychelles | 39.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 2.7% | flat |
| 7 | Uganda | 38.9 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 6.9% | flat |
| 8 | Eswatini | 38.3 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 2.7% | flat |
| 9 | Côte d'Ivoire | 37.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 152.3% | rising |
| 9 | Lesotho | 37.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 18.2% | rising |
| 11 | South Africa | 35.4 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 15.3% | rising |
| 12 | Morocco | 35.1 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 2.0% | rising |
| 13 | Sudan | 33.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 12.5% | rising |
| 14 | Senegal | 32 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 173.5% | rising |
| 15 | Togo | 30.5 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 94.3% | rising |
| 16 | Zambia | 29.8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 72.3% | rising |
| 17 | Kenya | 29.5 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 16.1% | rising |
| 18 | Nigeria | 28.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 10.2% | rising |
| 19 | Gambia | 27.8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 4.9% | rising |
| 20 | Burkina Faso | 27.3 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 333.3% | rising |
| 21 | Ghana | 26.9 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 6.7% | flat |
| 22 | Ethiopia | 25.9 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 19.3% | falling |
| 23 | Mali | 25 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 296.8% | rising |
| 24 | Tanzania, United Republic of | 21.7 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 0.9% | flat |
| 24 | Niger | 21.7 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 734.6% | volatile |
| 26 | Benin | 20.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 274.1% | rising |
| 27 | Malawi | 18.5 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 83.2% | rising |
| 28 | Congo | 17.8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 9.2% | rising |
| 29 | Egypt | 17.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 10.7% | rising |
| 30 | Guinea | 17.1 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 23.3% | falling |
| 31 | Djibouti | 16.5 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 3.8% | flat |
| 32 | Gabon | 15.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 9.4% | rising |
| 33 | Mozambique | 15 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 26.1% | rising |
| 34 | Cameroon | 13.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 11.5% | rising |
| 35 | Madagascar | 12.9 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 32.5% | falling |
| 36 | Mauritania | 10.3 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 32.1% | falling |
| 37 | Sierra Leone | 9.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 2.1% | flat |
| 38 | Liberia | 8.5 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 9.0% | rising |
| 39 | Angola | 8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 1,500.0% | volatile |
| 39 | Burundi | 8 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 25.0% | rising |
| 41 | Sao Tome and Principe | 5.2 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 13.0% | rising |
| 42 | Rwanda | 3.1 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 3.1% | flat |
| 43 | Congo, Democratic Republic of the | 1.6 cents on the dollar | 2012 | up 33.3% | volatile |
| 44 | Zimbabwe | 0.1 cents on the dollar | 2012 | down 98.9% | volatile |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- North Africa 32.58 cents on the dollar
- Africa 23.52 cents on the dollar
- Sub-Saharan Africa 22.42 cents on the dollar
- Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) 22.42 cents on the dollar
- Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa 22.09 cents on the dollar
- Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa and Nigeria 21.94 cents on the dollar
About this data
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recouped by creditors through the bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings. The calculation takes into account whether the business emerges from the proceedings as a going concern as well as costs and the loss in value due to the time spent closing down. If the business keeps operating, no value is lost on the initial claim, set at 100 cents on the dollar. If it does not, the initial 100 cents on the dollar are reduced to 70 cents on the dollar. Then the official costs of the insolvency procedure are deducted (1 cent for each percentage of the initial value). Finally, the value lost as a result of the time the money remains tied up in insolvency proceedings is taken into account, including the loss of value due to depreciation of the hotel furniture. Consistent with international accounting practice, the depreciation rate for furniture is taken to be 20%. The furniture is assumed to account for a quarter of the total value of assets. The recovery rate is the present value of the remaining proceeds, based on end-2006 lending rates from the International Monetary Fund’s International Financial Statistics, supplemented with data from central banks. For more information, visit http://www.doingbusiness.org/MethodologySurveys/.