Increase in number of local creditors meetings

A total of six companies in Westmeath and four companies in Roscommon have held creditors meetings in the first six months of this year, an increase of 25% compared to the same period in 2009. Altogether, a total of 18 companies in Westmeath and four companies in Roscommon held creditors meetings last year - but that number has already been reached in the Connacht county with only six months gone in this year. The figures come from a report by ICC Information, a business information company for Credit Risk Management. The second quarter figures for this year show that two companies in Westmeath - 0.6% of the national total while the one company in Roscommon accounted for 0.3% of the national total. Leinster companies accounted for the majority of creditors meetings with Dublin leading the way on 54% in quarter two. The majority of companies affected were in the construction industry, followed by business activities and manufacturing. The report also found that in total, all 330 companies nationally who held a creditors meeting in the second quarter of this year shared several common indicators of failure. The common indicators of failure found that 64.7% of companies that filed a balance sheet had a negative net worth or a net worth of €0, while 73% of companies had a negative working capital or a working capital of €0. On the balance sheets, 87.3% of companies had cash of less than €50,000, whilst only 12.7% had cash of more than €50,000 on their last filed accounts. ICC found that 23% of those companies that held a creditors meeting in the Q2 of this year, had at least one court judgment against them with 12% having multiple judgments. Finally, the age profile of those companies found that 35% were aged three to seven years and almost 60% were less than ten years old.