Quarterly Report - Q1 2025
Profit Warnings, HM Courts Filings,
and Initial Stage Winding Up Petitions.
New analysis from InfolinkGazette suggests confirms the number of Insolvency notices and HM Court filings continues to rise.
Profit Warnings
Q1 2025 saw a few less profit warnings reported than the numbers seen in Q4 2024, down from 118 in the final quarter of 2024 to 107 in Q1 2025. Compared to the same period last year, there are 6% less profit warnings.
When compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago companies citing a material uncertainty or going concern have also reduced by 5%, but it is important to note that the Q1 2024 figure was the highest we had seen, almost trebling from 11 in Q1 2023 to 30 in Q1 2024. After peaking at a quarterly high of 88 in Q2 2024
these numbers have gradually reduced again to 29 this quarter; much more optimistic than at its peak but still nearly three times higher than seen in recent years.
HM Courts filings
The number of debtor-driven filings, 660 in Q1 2025, shows a small decrease when compared to Q1 2024 (744). This still represents an increase of over 16%, however, when compared to 567 filings in Q4 2024, removing any doubt about the trajectory of overall filing numbers. As Infolink has previously reported, the most concerning aspect about Court filings is the persistently upward trend. With just 183 notices in Q2 2021, this quarter’s figure represents an increase of over 360% over a 3-year period.
As expected, we saw that Notices of Intention to Appoint an Administrator (350 in Q1 2024 vs 295 in Q1 2025) and Notice of Appointment to appoint an administrator (285 in Q1 2024 vs 205 in Q1 2024) made up the majority of notices filed.
Initial stage winding-up petitions
In August 2024, in continued effort to improve the data we provide our clients, Tech City Labs upgraded processes which resulted in an increase in the reported number of petitions: from 1572 in Q3 2024 to 3232 in Q4 2024.
HMRC remains the main driver of petitions being filed. While the number of all other petitions being filed remains consistent, our data shows that activity from HMRC is on the increase.
While this appears to be good news, it is important to note that this number is still four times higher than that recorded at the start of 2022, when just 398 Winding Up Petition Applications were recorded.
S. Kaler, Head of Data at InfolinkGazette commented:
“Q1 2025 saw the number of petitions decrease by 23% to 2479. The decrease seems positive until you consider that WUPA’s have gone up by over 105% in comparison to the preceding quarter. This is just one indicator of the state of the UK’s national economy which has seen a lot of turbulence since the pandemic, and plenty of legislative change since the new government came to power last summer. There’s a lot going on globally that is affecting UK business too, so while Q1 2025 numbers aren’t quite as poor overall as Q4 2024, outlook for the next few months remains serious. At Infolink we’re providing our clients with the most up to date business and market data, helping them make informed decisions in these uncertain times.”
InfolinkGazette collates this information and provides it to our clients as soon as it is available. For more information visit our product page: https://www.techcitylabs.com/infolink-gazette or write to us at: sales@infolinkgazette.co.uk
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