Last year 1,962 SA companies went to the liquidation wall.The figure could have been lower if more companies in financial distress had opted for business rescue."Business rescue provides a moratorium to shield a company in distress from creditors wanting to put it into liquidation," says Haroon Laher, Norton Rose Fulbright SA’s head of financial restructuring and insolvency. While it is in business rescue stakeholders, like employees and creditors, can engage and secure an outcome better than liquidation."All is not perfect in the world of business rescue," says Laher. "But SA is on the road towards a maturing rescue culture."Business rescue was what 83-year-old Progress Milling in Polokwane needed to save it from a liquidator’s axe.In a swift turnaround, the company went into business rescue in March and by September had been saved by a consortium of new investors.Progress’s rescue had far wider implications."Liquidation would have put 400 people out of work," says Laher. It would ...
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