Cash flow problems are a key reason why companies go bust, said liquidators and analysts. This means they do not have enough money coming in to cover what they owe, even if they have assets on paper.
Businesses also dealt with rising interest rates between 2022 and 2024, with rates beginning to ease only earlier this year.
By then, however, many firms had already been hit hard by the withdrawal of COVID-19 government support at the end of 2023 as well as a weak economic year.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR BADLY HIT
One debt collector firm, JMS Rogers, said an extreme example it handled was a food supplier that worked with major restaurants in Singapore.
“When he approached us, he gave us almost 120 debtors to go after, and the total…