The profession advised around 60,000 businesses in 2019 about insolvency and restructuring-related issues. Four out of 10 (39%) businesses advised by R3 members were still operating after their insolvency procedure concluded, the report says.

An estimated £353m was returned to creditors in corporate insolvencies.

Of R3 members’ corporate insolvency work, the most common procedures were:

• 55% creditor voluntary liquidations
• 34% administrations
• 7% compulsory liquidations
• 5% company voluntary arrangements.

The top four reasons for a company’s insolvency were:

• Management failure
• Financial issues
• Loss of market
• Knock-on effect from the failure of another company, showing the domino effect a corporate insolvency can have on its supply chain.

Additionally, 11% of corporate insolvency cases involved fraud or criminal activity.

The five sectors most commonly entering a corporate insolvency process were: retail; construction; accommodation & food services; professional, scientific & technical; and production.

The survey leading to the report was conducted by Savanta ComRes. Seventy-one unique companies from the insolvency and restructuring profession – all members of R3 – were surveyed.

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