If there was a cliff for the insolvency figures to jump off it would be called “Public Holidays” and they have effects across the board this month, but people taking 10 days in a row off will do that. April felt suspiciously like Christmas where you have a month’s work to do in half the time, so naturally some things get put off to next month.
Coupled with the shorter month we also had global factors playing havoc with the economy and adding to the uncertainty for businesses, a number have started to take the wait and see approach to see what washes out rather than taking action to deal with problems they are facing.
Winding Up Applications
April saw a further drop in appointments for the year, but we remain slightly above the prior year to date figures. Uncertainty and a short month dropping the figures back to 2023 levels.
For the first time this year we have come in under triple figures. I expect we will climb back up next month and will likely see a bounce back for the rest of the year. IRD continues to apply pressure and the their remains a lot of distress in the economy while consumers have not opened their wallets just yet.
IRD made up 47 of the 73 applications for the month, with non IRD applications cut in half when compared to the previous month. IRD continue to be well above the past 5 years cumulative total, 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 continued their 25-month streak of having more applications than all other creditors.
Personal Receiverships
April saw 5 more appointments putting up over double that stats seen in previous years to April figures. As more companies continue to default on their lending personal security agreements are being called up, we believe this will continue to track towards exceeding 2024 figures.
Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations
What did April look like? It mirrored the April 2024 figures. What was this driven by? Public Holidays leaving less actual working days and a fear bit of uncertainty in the economy (some global and some local) helping stakeholders avoid the difficult decisions.
Year to date insolvency figures are just behind those seen in and around 2013 – 2015 and remain slightly above those seen in 2024.
There was a large drop in court appointed liquidations in April with only 28 in the month, well down from February’s 114 and March’s 85. This in turn made the insolvency shareholder liquidation portion (above) appear a lot larger for the month. Another effect of a lot of Public Holidays in the month is the courts not being open, unsurprisingly it is difficult to have court appointed liquidations with the court is closed.
Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders
Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain low as seen above. You will note that while IRD has continued to push corporate winding ups, this has not yet been felt in the personal insolvency space with a rise in court appointed bankruptcies.
Where to from here?
While figures have been dropping in the last few months we are not out of the woods yet and will expect to see a turnaround towards the middle of the year along with returning to higher insolvency levels.
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