New business registrations soar by 20%

ENTREPRENEURSHIP is alive and well as the number of new businesses registered soared 20% in the last year.

Figures show that 2,687 businesses were registered last month, up 477 on the same month last year.

However, when it comes to forming a company, it seems entrepreneurs are more reluctant to push ahead with their plans. The number of new companies formed last month was down by almost 20% to 1,017, according to figures compiled by vision-net.ie.

The figures also revealed that meetings of creditors to appoint a liquidator dropped 14% on 2009 figures while appointments of liquidators dropped 6.3%. Interestingly, no examiners were appointed to Irish companies last month.

Tom Kavanagh, a partner with Kavanagh Fennell, said: “There are two main reasons for the low levels of examinerships at present — the tougher regime in the courts and the lack of investment capital available for distressed companies is putting many companies off applying for examinership.”

The number of companies that appointed a liquidator fell from 174 in July last year to 163 for the month this year. The number of companies that appointed a receiver increased from 29 in July last year to 37 last month.

Figures from InsolvencyJournal.ie recently showed insolvencies increased by over a fifth for the first seven months of the year and are up 150% on the 2008 figures. The number of insolvencies fell slightly in July, falling from 132 in June to 125.

“While there was a minor dip in insolvencies this month, the general perception is that there is a backlog of distressed cases and insolvencies are likely to increase during the second half of the year,” said Mr Kavanagh.