Winding Up Applications
Yet another month where we saw a drop in appointments when compared to the prior month, but we remain above the prior year March figures. Traditionally we would see a drop in March before we begin the climb to the mid-year highs, coupled with the end of financial year keeping creditors distracted with other matters.
The winding up notices advertised still present a strong showing for the month, with triple digits for each month in the first quarter of 2025. It suggests we will continue to see this increased level of creditor activity for the rest of the year.
While the appointments since January have been decreasing, as a cumulative total we remain above the totals in the last 5 years and have already exceeded the total yearly winding up applications seen in 2020. At our current rate I expect we will exceed the yearly total winding up applications in 2021 and 2022 by the end of the 2nd quarter for 2025.
IRD made up 53 of the 104 applications for the month and have reverted to their long-term average of 51% of the total applications. They remain well above the past 5 years cumulative total for the first quarter, so it is safe to assume they are continuing to apply pressure to derelict debtors, this is supported by the coms they are putting out on their increased compliance and recovery work in 2025.
The IRD has only just managed to continue their 24-month streak of having more applications than all other creditors making up 53 vs 51 applications for the month. We are not expecting the drop off since January to continue but rather to stabilise and begin to climb into the 2nd quarter of the year.
Personal Receiverships
A slower March with only two personal receivership appointments in the month, looking back on the last six years however the month of March does not normally see many appointments. As you can see below the total appointment for the first quarter are above the yearly totals seen in 2019, 2021 and 2022. We continue to track towards exceeding 2024 appointments by 25%+.
Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations
The traditional high seen in March did not quite eventuate as we saw a slower month for the end of the financial year. What was this driven by? Digging into the figures we normally see a spike in solvent liquidations at the end of the financial year, in 2025 this did not eventuate. This has been a reoccurring trend for the last few months with solvent liquidations taking a dip, likely driven by the recession and there being less cashed up businesses looking to wind themselves down and distribute funds back to shareholders.
Year to date insolvency figures line up with those seen in and around 2013 – 2015 and remain above those seen in 2024.
As mentioned above solvent liquidations remained down on the average, 8% in 2025 vs 13% for the long-term average. Comparing 2025 to the average for past March figures the 8% for the month is well below the normal March solvent level of 17%.
There was a lift in insolvent shareholder appointments at 53% compared to their average of 51%. Once again, the bigger increase was from court liquidations making up 31% while the average is normally around 26%, this was driven by the large number of winding up application being pushed through the courts in Jan and Feb 2025.
Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.
Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain subdued with a total for the month of 112 and come in only slightly above 2022 (89), 2023 (106) & 2024 (99).
Cumulatively January and February’s total is 179, only slightly above 2022 (157), 2023 (157) and 2024 (154). While businesses continue to struggle this is not yet showing up in the personal insolvency figures.
Where to from here?
With the first quarter behind us 2025 looks like there will be further businesses failures across all sectors and business sizes, particularly with the global uncertainty and the IRD keeping pressure on businesses.
There will be continued busy times for insolvency practitioners for the next 2-3 years as we deal with the tail from the latest recession.
If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..