July 2021 will be remembered as a time of unprecedented unrest. Thousands of businesses were stripped bare, looted and ransacked – some of which to the point of no return. Pepkor Holdings alone said on Friday that 489 of its retail stores, or 9% of its overall portfolio, had been damaged and looted.
In a research published by PwC, the group said that its calculations show that national GDP growth could be 0.4 percentage points lower this year due to the significant disruption over the past week. Given the loss in potential economic growth, PwC estimates up to 50,000 jobs could be at risk.
As the country was already looking to business rescue as a means to saving some of the country’s most prominent businesses due to the impact of the pandemic, Tobie Jordaan, Business Rescue, Restructuring; Insolvency Sector head and director at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) believes that the need for business rescue is could become too much to handle.
“If you thought we needed business rescue before, 2021 threw another curveball at the economy. South Africa is likely to struggle with this increased need as we don’t have enough business rescue practitioners to deal with it.”
As experts in the business rescue practice, CDH’s business rescue team is available to share their insights on the following topics:
The state of business rescue in SA
The likely impact the riots will have on business rescue;
The legal steps affected businesses should take before applying for business rescue;
When does one qualify for business rescue;
How is and will business rescue help the economy recover
ENDS
