Six companies collapsed each day this month – Vision-net

Vision-net’s figures, covering the period between 1–28 August, reveal that 165 companies were declared insolvent – down 13pc on the same month last year.

Of those, 99 were liquidated, 64 entered receivership, and an examiner was appointed to two companies.

A county-by-county breakdown shows that Dublin accounted for 42pc of all insolvencies in August, with Limerick second highest on 14pc and Meath third with 5pc of the total. Cork, Galway and Mayo each accounted for 4pc of the monthly total.

Some 108 companies had meetings of creditors this month showing short-term debts outstanding of approximately €30m.

Vision-net has also evaluated the number of company start-ups and closures between January and July of this year.

While there have been 8,184 start-ups in the first seven months of 2012, 8,664 companies have closed during the same period, reprnesenting a net loss of 480 businesses.

Companies in business and professional services, construction, wholesale and retail, real estate and social and personal services sectors make up 72pc of closures this year.

Christine Cullen, managing director of Vision-net, said the figures show that companies continue to struggle, with the trend in closures creeping further upward.

“The trading conditions remain very challenging for companies. High levels of unpaid debt and cash flow problems are hampering the capacity of companies to stay in business or scale and this has a knock-on impact on jobs and growth. We are also seeing a rise in the value of judgments and the amounts involved here are notably high.

“Vision-net’s advice to companies and consumers is to take a moment to research financial decisions and avail of accurate business intelligence that leads to better decision making,” Cullen said.