Higher interest rates are pushing an increasing number of companies into insolvency, according to one of the UK’s biggest insolvency practitioners.

Begbies Traynor said it expected to see more businesses tip into insolvency “in tandem with the indicators of corporate financial stress in the UK”, alongside its financial results published on Monday.

The Bank of England has raised interest rates from 0.1% at the end of 2021 to 5.25% to try to tame inflation. That has significantly increased the cost of borrowing for UK businesses, preventing many from papering over the cracks with cheap debt. Interest rate increases also have the effect of reducing spending in the economy, giving indebted companies little way out.

Ric Traynor, the…

The COVID-19 travel bans highlighted how fragile the travel industry can be. If you’ve paid money to a travel agent, airline or other travel provider that becomes insolvent, are you able to get your money back?

Does travel insurance cover airline insolvency?

Most…

Highline Caravans Pty Ltd, located in the outer suburb of Campbellfield, went into voluntary liquidation this week according to a notice published on ASIC.

The company went bust potentially owing between $700,000 and $1 million. 

Early reports have estimated at least 50 other businesses are owed money.

Altan Djenab, a corporate insolvency expert from Wild Apricot, has been appointed liquidator.

He said the business may have been dealing with a reduced amount of orders.  

“It seems it’s down to a lack of orders,” he told the Herald Sun.

“But I’ve really got to get in and see what has happened.”

It is understood staff are…

Scottish councils are under a legal duty to produce a balanced budget each year.

As such, they cannot go bankrupt in the true sense.

If necessary they can use their cash reserves to produce balanced budgets although the reserves of some councils are getting low.

But what would happen if a council failed to agree a budget? Perhaps because the options for balancing the books were too controversial?

In the past councils have warned this was a possibility.

Were a council to fail to produce a budget, its responsibilities could be taken over by Scottish government civil servants.

Councils are still waiting to hear how much money they will get from Holyrood to fund next year’s council tax freeze.

Inflation and energy bills have added to their…

The company behind Sunshine Private Hospital in Melbourne’s west has entered voluntary administration, forcing hospital management to cancel surgeries and move patients to other hospitals.

In a statement from Wexted Advisors, administrators said funding to continue to operate the hospital was not available, leading to administrators winding down operations.

“The administrators have commenced working with management to cancel day surgery operations, notify the Victorian Department…

Fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung has been declared bankrupt for failure to pay the legal costs of proceedings and criminal offences he was involved in before he fled Hong Kong in 2020.

High Court Master Kent Yee Kai-siu issued the bankruptcy order against Hui on Tuesday.

Hui, who failed to pay the fees for two private prosecutions he launched in 2020, was convicted of contempt in 2022 for breach of bail conditions and given a three-year jail sentence.

The High Court judge who presided over the 2022 case ordered him to pay the justice department’s costs for the proceedings on an indemnity basis.

But Hui jumped bail and fled the city in late 2020 as he awaited trial…

One of China’s largest shadow banks warned it’s “severely insolvent”, with a debt pile more than two times higher than assets, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg News.

In a further sign of trouble for the nation’s $US3 trillion ($4.6 trillion) trust sector, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group told investors on Wednesday that it has debts of about 420 billion yuan to 460 billion yuan, compared with assets of 200 billion yuan. Liquidity has dried up and the recoverable amount from asset disposals is expected to be low, the company said.

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Cisalfa Sport Spa, one of Italy’s largest sportswear retailers, has been selected as the new business partner of SportScheck GmbH, a leading German omnichannel sports retailer that had filed for voluntary insolvency proceedings on Nov. 30 after that Signa, its previous owner, was declared insolvent.

As a result of this deal, Cisalfa Sport will enter in the German retailers’ business operations, but SportScheck will retain the use of its Munich-based brand name and business individuality, while it will benefit from the synergies and economies of scale of the Italian group.

Further details of the deal will be disclosed in the future because at this stage the agreement is as much subject to approval by the German Antitrust…

The administrators handling the collapse of Booktopia have announced that orders placed with Australia’s largest online bookseller will not be filled – and there may be no refunds either.

It means out of pocket customers who placed orders prior to the company entering voluntary administration have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors – which voids store credits and gift cards too.

This week all trading ceased on the Booktopia site, with administrator Damien Pasfield from McGrathNicol Restructuring informing customers they must lodge a proof of debt form to make a claim.

The Booktopia Group and its associated entities Booktopia, Making I. T. Better, and Virtual Lifestyles, were declared insolvent and went into voluntary…

Hong Kong’s High Court has declared self-exiled activist Ted Hui bankrupt for failing to pay costs of legal proceedings involving him.

The former lawmaker, who left Hong Kong in November 2020, is among 13 self-exiled pro-democracy activists accused of breaching the Beijing-imposed national security law.

High Court Master Kent Yee issued the bankruptcy order against Hui on Tuesday, saying the activist had “never responded” to requests that he pay for legal proceedings against him. Hui was not represented at the hearing.

The bankruptcy petition was filed last November.

Hui was found guilty in June 2022 of four counts of contempt of court over his absence from legal…