Tens of thousands of German SMEs facing closure due to succession crisis: survey

FRANKFURT, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Approximately 231,000 owners of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Germany are considering closing their businesses by the end of 2025 mainly because retiring owners face challenges in finding successors, said the state development bank KfW on Friday.

This represents an increase of more than 41 percent from last year, and it is also the highest number since KfW began its succession monitoring research in 2015. Within three to five years, the number of entrepreneurs facing this uncertainty is expected to increase to 310,000, according to an analysis report of KfW.