24
The Bottom Line June 2006
NEWS
CONSISTENT PROFITS
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DR. JON KANITZ
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CIBC Wood Gundy
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Tel: (416) 594-7961 Fax: (416) 594-8500
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By DONALEE MOULTON
The latest bankruptcy statis-
tics reveal an encouraging
trend—but they do not
reveal the whole trend, according
to one Canadian expert in the
field.
“The statistics show a steady
decline in business bankruptcies,”
Allan Nackan, a partner with A.
Farber and Partners Inc., told The
Bottom Line.
“When a company gets into
trouble (today), there are a
number of options available,” he
added. “Bankruptcy is just one
option. Receivership and bank-
ruptcy are at the end of the line.
Restructuring often comes before
then.”
According to the Toronto-
based company, which provides
insolvency and restructuring ser-
vices, there were 624 companies
claiming bankruptcy in January of
this year. That declined to 589 the
following month, a drop of about
six per cent.
In February 2005, the number
of business bankruptcies was 736
for a year-over-year decrease of
more than 15 per cent.
“All in all, the Canadian
economy is in good shape and this
situation is reflected in the
decrease in new insolvency f il-
ings,” the most recent bulletin
from the Office of the Superinten-
dent of Bankruptcy Canada stated.
The agency noted that the total
number of new f ilings has
decreased by 1.2 per cent in the
first quarter of this year compared
with the same quarter last year.
During this period, business
insolvencies fell by nearly 10 per
cent.
The fall is occurring across the
country, although not consistently.
To no one’s surprise, Alberta led
the pack with a signif icant 26.6
per cent reduction in new bank-
ruptcy filings.
Also experiencing drops were
British Columbia (-8.4 per cent),
the Atlantic region (-4.2 per cent)
and Ontario