December sees 460 closures

THE number of Australian company collapses gathered momentum in December, according to official figures.

The latest weekly insolvency statistics reveal 460 businesses went into administration in December, well up on November numbers. But the provisional data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveals the December figures were still 25 per cent below the 614 administrations in December 2019. The provision data shows 201 businesses in NSW went bust in December, down on the 227 for the same month in 2019.

The data shows a similar story in Victoria where 135 businesses went into external administration in December, down from 161 a year earlier.

Queensland, where COVID conditions have been more mild than in other states, saw 81 administrations for December, down from 141 a year earlier. In South Australia, administrations fell from 161 in December 2019 to 135 last month.

The 12-month rolling average data suggests the government’s debt protections have had their desired effect, with creditors’ wind-up and courtordered wind-up notices tracking far below their 2019 levels.

The provisional data shows that on a 12-month rolling basis, the total number of external administrations at the end of December was 4938, down 40.7 per cent on 2019.

Some commentators are expecting the administration and insolvency floodgates to open in the first months of 2021, with the latest ASIC data showing 42 businesses going bust since the new year.

The end of the JobKeeper wage support program will leave many businesses bearing more of the burden of paying staff.