Companies / Financial Services A rosier picture could be emerging on liquidations and insolvencies Liquidations hit a low of at least four years in January, while the long-term decline in insolvencies persisted BL PREMIUM

There were 44 fewer liquidations in January than a year earlier — a fall of 32.6% — and the rolling three-month figure also improved, Statistics SA data showed on Monday. The liquidation figures are volatile, so it is difficult to read a pattern into the latest figures, but the number for January 2017 — at 91 — is the lowest in at least the past four years, according to Stats SA’s historical data. Liquidations peaked at about 270 in January 2013, and have since oscillated in a band between about 125 and 225 for several years, so Monday’s data show a break with the pattern — but it is too soon to say a new pattern has emerged. Stats SA said voluntary liquidations fell by 34 cases and compulsory liquidations by 10 cases. In the three months to end-January, there were 4.6% fewer liquidations than the year-earlier three-month period. Insolvencies have shown a much clearer long-term downward trend since their peak in March 2012, though, and fell 22.1% in December from a year earlier, Sta...