UK insolvencies

The Insolvency Service said that in the last three months of 2008 there were 2,428 corporate insolvencies such as administrations and receiverships. That was a 220% rise on the same period the year before.

In the same period, 29,444 people were made bankrupt or entered an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), 19% more than a year ago. Of those, 19,100 were bankruptcies while 10,344 were IVAs.

There were 4,607 firms wound up in England & Wales in the last three months of 2008, 52% more than a year before.

Here's another couple of scary statistics:

1. Over the whole of 2008, the number of firms that were liquidated rose by 24% to 15,535.

That amounted to one in every 150 trading companies.

2. The number of other corporate insolvencies - receiverships, administrations and company voluntary arrangements - rose by 92% to 6,276.

And one scary statistic and and even scarier prediction from the president of the insolvency professionals' trade body R3, Nick O'Reilly:

"What today's figures mean is that in 2008 we saw a staggering 350 people becoming insolvent in the UK every day"

"The outlook is bleak for the next two years, when insolvency practitioners expect to see in excess of 158,000 personal insolvencies annually,"

One of the few growth industries in the UK in 2009/2010 may be that of insolvency practitioners. Does anyone know if you can buy shares in such companies?