A big profits upgrade by insolvencies specialist Begbies Traynor on Tuesday highlighted the fight for survival facing a growing number of UK companies.
The business recoveries and advisory firm said full-year revenues and profits were comfortably ahead of City forecasts, aided by “favourable market conditions” in recent weeks. Its shares jumped more than 10%.
The update tallies with figures from the Insolvency Service showing the number of companies in administration rose to a five-year high in the first quarter of 2019, a period covering the run-up to the original Brexit deadline.
Begbies’ own Red Flag data recently showed 484,000 UK businesses in financial distress at the start of 2019, representing 14% of all economically active firms.
The hardest-hit sector was property, which saw a 13% increase to 48,182.
Construction, often considered the bellwether of the UK economy, has also suffered.
Begbies chairman Ric Traynor said today: “We have had a successful end to our financial year with our results anticipated to be comfortably ahead of market expectations.”
