Economic Rundown While it feels like we have powered through the last quarter of this year, unbelievably it is already mid-December, and we are one week out from Christmas. Everyone is in a flurry of busyness trying to clear their desks before the holiday period and we enter the seasonal slowdown. Due to the late move in the alert level system and reopening of hospitality venues, especially in Auckland, a lot of the usual Christmas functions from clients, associations and work do’s have been cancelled. Due in part to the uncertainty of the time and the months of planning required. Businesses will no doubt be feeling the hurt having missed out on a traditionally busy time of year for them.…

Economic Rundown As we pass the 100-day mark of Auckland’s lockdown businesses unable to trade at 100% capacity continue to struggle due to the alert level restrictions in place. The country was given the target of 90% fully vaccinated to move into the traffic light system, this has now been pulled forward for all regions from the start of December. The percentage of people vaccinated will have some influence at what traffic light setting the regions enter the new system at. For Auckland this can only mean a drop in restrictions as the highest vaccinated region however for some small regions with lower vaccinated levels they will likely see tighter restrictions in their region. Until then neighbouring regions phaze in…

Our membership with the Global Restructuring and Insolvency Professionals (GRIP) network gives our clients and their referrers access to qualified and highly experienced insolvency and business recovery practitioners in over 36 countries worldwide. The GRIP network was created in 2014 in Europe to provide a cross-border referral and marketing network for independent insolvency firms. Members are invited to join and commit to supporting each other to secure locally based work and resolve complex issues. GRIP members are based in Europe, Canada, Central and South America, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Whether you need professional assistance with restructuring, selling assets, or winding up a company, a fellow GRIP member who has strong local knowledge, understanding of local regulatory and legal requirements,…

Video Link Here July has mirrored the insolvency appointment figures over the last couple of months. The pressures affecting our economy have also remained fairly consistent over the last few months:- Countries are continuing to fluctuate in and out of COVID-19 lockdowns - Businesses and consumers are facing ongoing shipping delays and supply shortages- Consumer demand for goods continues to exceed supply in many areas- Labour shortages remain an issue- Inflation remains higher than RBNZ’s targets and the affordability of goods remains an issue To the end of July, the outlook for growth has continued to look positive:- Unemployment rates have now fallen to pre-COVID-19 rates. - The construction industry and the housing market continue to run hot - Consumer…

We have passed the halfway point of 2021 and it is now less than six months until Christmas. Quite a bit has happened in the first half of the year so let’s look at how the NZ economy has tracked to June 2021. The global economy continues to face a number of challenges, which are impacting many countries to varying degrees: - Countries are fluctuating in and out of lockdowns as a result of ongoing COVID-19- Shipping delays are continuing- There are materials shortages affecting many industries- Consumer demand for goods continues to rise while international travel continues to be restricted We see the building industry as one to watch. In New Zealand, COVID-19 brought a further increase in demand…

This article was prepared for RITANZ by James McMillan, Patrick Glennie and Nicole Thompson of Dentons Kensington Swan. 2020 was a year of reform in the insolvency sector. Most of the provisions of the Insolvency Practitioners Regulation Act 2019 (IPRA) came into force on 1 September 2020, with several other significant reforms coming in at or around the same time. In this article, we look back at some of the key issues insolvency practitioners were readying themselves to grapple with, and trace developments since the IPRA came into force. Key reforms Some of the key reforms in 2020 were: • Unlicensed insolvency practitioners can no longer accept new insolvency assignments (and have until 31 August 2021 to complete existing assignments).•…

Let’s look at the NZ economy and the insolvency space in May 2021. In the media, the concerns about the current labour shortages grew. While these concerns were previously focused on the horticultural sector (a shortage of pickers during harvest) and the hospitality sector, the number of industries calling out for workers is increasing. Of late, the labour shortages in the construction sector – an issues that has been around for some time – have been noticeable, as anyone who has tried to organise a tradie or become a DIY expert thanks to YouTube can attest to. Supply shortages for building materials is also biting, which is not helping New Zealand’s ever present housing crisis. The pressure points for the…

Typically, April is a quieter month for company insolvencies than March is and April 2021 followed this pattern. April starts the new financial year for most companies and, hopefully, allows businesses to put the COVID-disrupted 2021 financial year behind them. We anticipate that the statistics for the 2021 financial year will become the outlier and that the 2020 financial year will be a better measure of insolvency trends. Let’s look at what happened in April 2021. The minimum wage increased $1.10 per hour from 1 April 2021 to $20.00 per hour ($41,600.00 per annum). While the additional cost of $44.00 per employee per week ($2,288.00 per annum) may not have a huge impact on some smaller businesses with very few…

Welcome to the month of double lockdowns and Americas Cup racing. February is typically the first month of the year where we see a steep uptake in all insolvency appointments across the board after the lower months of December and January. Directors will take a hard look at their company after a quiet Christmas period and January break and make the call on whether they want to continue through another year or pack it in. Individuals will often go through a similar process after having spent up large over the Christmas period and having little to show for it and no prospects of paying off the debts they may have racked up and will need to assess their insolvency options.…

Murphy’s Law (or one version of it) states "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" and that can appear to be the case when you are running a business in the current environment. If it’s not a lockdown, it’s a shortage of supply, or it’s a major client failing, or it’s another of the myriad of things that can go wrong. While having good contingency plans in place, including cash reserves or access to a fighting fund, can help your business get through the hard times, when these problems come at you one after another in quick succession, things can turn to custard very quickly. When that happens, there are things that, as a director of the company, you should…

Welcome to the 2021 statistics. January is traditionally a quiet month for appointments across all forms of insolvency and 2021 is no exception. With the courts closed for most of January, many companies extending their Christmas close down periods well into January, and the bulk of the country holidaying at the bach or camping in the great outdoors with the children, not a lot happened on the insolvency front. Typically, appointments begin to track up from February onwards. Many of the woes from 2020 – changes in consumer demand, shipping delays, the loss of overseas tourists, domestic tourism visiting different destinations and spending less than their overseas counterparts, lower than expected income over the summer trading period, minimum wage increases,…

With one month now under our belts into 2021 it is timely to have a look back on 2020 and how the year played out when lined up to past years so we can gauge the full affect of COVID-19. January 2021 figures will be published in a separate article when they are compiled over the next few days. I’m not sure that we need to do a full recap of the major events of 2020, the notable ones were COVID-19 lockdown #1, COVID-19 lockdown #2 for Auckland then an election. In any normal year with two economic lockdowns for an extended period you would expect there to be an upswing in the insolvency cases for an economy. This was…