OVER 900 companies were officially insolvent in the first six months of the year – a 25 per cent jump on the same period in 2009.

Figures released at the weekend by corporate restructuring specialists Farrell Grant Sparks (FGS) show 922 companies went into liquidation, receivership or examinership in the first six months of 2010.

According to FGS partner, Declan Taite, the number of insolvencies in the Republic could hit between 1,850 and 1,900 for the year as a whole, compared with 1,570 failures in 2009.

However, he points out that “the acceleration in the number of failures in late 2009 and early 2010 has not continued in the 2010 half-year figures. In fact, the number of failures in the second quarter in 2010 was 443 compared with 469 for the first three months of the year.”

Construction and engineering businesses were the worst hit.