AS MANY as 307 companies were forced to wind up last year, based on figures released by the Ministry of Law’s Insolvency Office.
This was a 52.7 per cent jump from the number of compulsory wind-ups in 2023, when 201 companies were forced to shut for good.
The Insolvency Office also received 399 applications from companies seeking to wind up in 2024, a 46.2 per cent rise from 2023, when the office received 273 applications.
The number of bankruptcy applications filled in the first 11 months of 2024 reached 4,521.
During this period, more than 1,100 bankruptcy orders were issued and there were 740 bankruptcy discharges. As a bankruptcy order may translate into more than one bankrupt, the number of orders and the number of discharges may not necessarily tally with the total number of undischarged bankrupts.
For the whole of 2023, there were 3,986 applications filed, and 1,096 bankruptcy orders issued, resulting in 654 discharges.
Last month, Singapore passed a law to simplify and make the insolvency process more cost-effective for companies. The new Simplified Insolvency Programme will become a permanent feature of Singapore’s corporate debt restructuring and insolvency regime.
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