Business
Red Flag A!ert Statistics
Red Flag A!ert Statistics.
About this update from Btg Consulting Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Begbies Traynor Group PLC\n30 January 2008\n\n\nWednesday, 30 January 2008\n\n Begbies Traynor's Red Flag A!ert Statistics Signal Tough Times Ahead\n\nBegbies Traynor, the UK's leading business rescue, recovery and restructuring\nspecialist, today publishes its quarterly Red Flag A!ert statistics, which\nmonitor adverse actions and other corporate distress signals (such as the issue\nof county court judgements and wind up petitions). These show that the number of\nUK companies facing significant difficulties has increased substantially over\nthis time last year.\n\nThe survey monitors the numbers of companies experiencing difficulties in two\ncategories: 'Significant Problems' * and 'Critical Problems' **. Of those\ncompanies experiencing the more serious 'Critical Problems', Red Flag's research\nshows that approximately 15% will enter into a formal insolvency procedure\nwithin 12 months.\n\nAll eight of mainland Britain's regions showed an increase in Critical Problems.\nComparing quarterly averages of companies with Critical Problems, the region\nexperiencing the greatest increase in 2007 was the West Midlands, up 43.1% on\n2006, while the smallest increase was in the North West, with 15.3%.\n\nThe full list is as follows:\n\nRegion % Increase in Critical\n Problems in 2007\nWest Midlands 43.1\nSouth 32.6\nNorth East England 25.3\nScotland 23.0\nSouth East England and East Anglia 22.0\nSouth West England and South Wales 18.0\nEast Midlands 16.1\nNorth West and North Wales 15.3\n\nThe average increase of companies facing Critical Problems for all regions\nduring 2007 was 23% up on 2006; this represents a total of 5,159 companies\ncompared with 4,201 in 2006.\n\nCompanies showing minor distress indicators across all regions totalled 426,023\nin 2007 compared with 375,493 in 2006, an increase of 13%. This compares with a\nfigure of 31% for the previous year, further evidence that the insolvency market\nhad stabilised during 2007, as indicated in last years Insolvency Outlook report\nfrom Euler Hermes.\n\nMuch of the increases in adverse actions occurred in the final quarter of 2007.\nThis concurs with the Bank of England's Fourth Quarter 'Credit Conditions\nSurvey'. The survey showed a deepening of the current 'Credit Crunch' with\nlenders reporting that credit availability had reduced significantly during Q4\nand that default...