Failed Companies

Companies usually fail because of poor management and managers almost always attribute failure to circumstances beyond their control.

Formal announcements of insolvency to the stock exchange by company directors are often therefore self-serving. The truth about failure emerges later in the fine print of reports by external administrators or the post mortems of financial journalists.

WARNING: Unless you really know what you are doing and/or are prepared to take on considerable risk, don't invest in small companies. Better to invest in companies in the S&P/ASX 200.

An absence of regulatory action

What makes company failure even more galling is the absence of regulatory action against directors and management.

A recent article by Adele Ferguson in the Sydney Morning Herald on the subject of Hastie's failure says it all:  

"The problem is most directors involved in company collapses walk away scot-free. Few are banned as company directors regardless of whether they have a string of collapses against their name. Of the few company directors who have been found guilty of breaches, most have faced the punishment of being hit with a wet lettuce. In the case of Centro, shame was deemed an appropriate punishment, despite the billions of dollars that shareholders lost, while the non-executive directors of ABC Learning walked away, despite the havoc wreaked, as did directors of Babcock & Brown and others."

Delisting is not the same as failure 

Investors are often confused by company delisting and company failure. Many companies are delisted for reasons other than failure such as takeover, merger, illiquidity, withdrawal because of listing costs etc.

Many company failures do not result in a delisting. Company failure often lies behind "changes of activity" where companies fail with one activity and formally adopt another. Sometimes a change of name reflects an attempt to disassociate from past failures. Both are classic cases of failure masked by events other than a delisting.

Many small companies fail and actually go into administration, where they are reconstructed and recapitalised. They later emerge with either the same name or a different name. Later there is hardly any sign of the failure. Only the shareholders concerned are painfully aware. Their capital has been savagely diluted and their shares are practically worthless.

Finding your company on our websites:

deListed brings you details of failed and delisted companies and, where relevant, developments with such companies. We provide details of historical changes of company name and the real reasons for the delisting of all companies from Australian stock exchanges. In conjunction with our sister site, InvestoGain AUS, we also seek to provide a seamless connection between past and present and the tools to avoid failure in future.

Australian listed and suspended companies can be found simply by clicking on the InvestoGain AUS link above.

All Australian and New Zealand companies whether listed, suspended or delisted can be found by entering the company’s NAME or CODE in the SEARCH facilities above.

For an explanation of the status of companies click on the appropriate links below:

EARLY WARNINGS OF FAILURE

SUSPENDED COMPANIES

IN ADMINISTRATION

IN RECEIVERSHIP

IN LIQUIDATION

DELISTED COMPANIES

DEREGISTERED COMPANIES