E. Pihl & Søn, 126-year-old Danish builder of the Great Belt Bridge, bankrupt in 2013

E. Pihl & Søn was founded in 1878 and grew to become Denmark's third-largest construction company. It was responsible for some of the country's most iconic infrastructure projects: the Great Belt Bridge, the Copenhagen Opera House, the Royal Danish Playhouse, and the UN City complex. The company employed 2,300 people and had a turnover of DKK 5.5 billion in 2012.

But behind the prestigious project portfolio, the company was in deep trouble. Management had pursued aggressive expansion across Scandinavia and into the UK, opening a subsidiary called Pihl UK in 2007. The expansion was poorly managed: contract terms were unbalanced, customer and subcontractor credit quality was not verified, and the company's risk management procedures were inadequate for the scale of its operations.

The 2012 annual report revealed a sudden loss of DKK 473 million. A bankruptcy trustee's investigation later found that management had systematically inflated revenues and concealed losses on major projects. The company's true financial position was far worse than reported. A subsequent report by the Danish Construction Association found that the collapse was caused by 'inadequate management and control' and that the board had failed to act on warning signs.

On August 26, 2013, E. Pihl & Søn filed for bankruptcy with estimated liabilities of DKK 2.2 billion ($290 million) against assets of just DKK 291 million. The company had more than 90 ongoing building projects at the time. Between 600 and 900 jobs were lost in Denmark, and the Danish construction industry was left with a dramatically reduced competitive landscape for large-scale projects.