Company liquidations up 35% on pre-pandemic levels

One of the country’s leading restructuring advisors is urging mid-market business owners not to ‘bury their heads in the sand’ and seek early advice amid soaring company liquidations.

The warning comes as latest monthly insolvency statistics for November 2022 reveal formal corporate insolvency appointments are 21 per cent higher than the previous year and 35 per cent higher than in November 2019 (pre-pandemic).

Nicola Clark, restructuring and insolvency partner at  Azets in the North West, the UK Top 10 firm, expects liquidations to continue rising but believes more businesses can be turned around and saved, provided they seek quality restructuring advice and support at an early stage.

She said: “These latest insolvency statistics for November continue the trend over the last three years and evidence a significant increase in the volume of companies feeling financial stress. This increase is largely being driven by higher Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs) and compulsory liquidations. 

“We are already seeing an uptick in the number of companies facing financial pressure, as the obvious impacts of inflation, interest rates, input costs, plus Brexit continue to bite. It is also much harder for firms to build reliable forecasts at this stage, given the current economic and macro uncertainties, this in turn makes raising additional liquidity or capital more challenging.

“In my experience, a company that recognises the need for advice and support at an early stage will have a wider range of options available to it and a much better prospect of avoiding insolvency, versus those that bury their heads in the sand. Directors should seek advice from an appropriate restructuring and insolvency practitioner, to help them better understand these options in order to save some or all of the business. Waiting until there is a liquidity crunch is just too late.”