Financial Pressure Rises for Companies in Western Europe

In Bloomberg, BCG’s Tobias Wens discusses the findings from a BCG study indicating that one in six companies in Western Europe is under transformation pressure, a 14% increase from last year. Net debt/EBITDA levels (a measure of overall indebtedness) are also on the rise, with nearly a third of companies entering 2026 above the threshold for financial stress, signaling eroding resilience. “If business plans do not materialize or there is another shock, companies will have fewer options than they did a few years ago,” Wens cautions.