Economic downturns create opportunities for the restructuring or acquisition of challenged assets, and we anticipate increased activity in this space in 2023. The indicators pointing in that direction are:
- inflation remains elevated, with the Reserve Bank of Australia successively hiking interest rates in response;
- ASIC’s insolvency statistics for Q3 and Q4 2022 showing an escalating number of external administration appointments;
- the Australian Taxation Office ramping up debt collection activity – reportedly seeking the repayment of approximately $45 billion in uncollected, undisputed tax debt (an increase of nearly 70% from mid-2019 when the figure was sitting at $26.5 billion); and
- given that confluence of factors, industry…
