Begbies Traynor was the insolvency practice appointed to the most insolvent companies in October 2026, according to a Small Cap News analysis of appointment notices published in The Gazette. Its insolvency practitioners were named as administrators or liquidators of 197 companies.
The next busiest firms were FRP Advisory with 77, Business Guardian with 57, Leonard Curtis with 55 and Leading Business Services with 46.
In administrations, the largest number of appointments went to FRP Advisory with 14, Begbies Traynor with 13 and Interpath Advisory with 10.
In creditors' voluntary liquidations, Begbies Traynor led with 178, followed by FRP Advisory with 62.
The Official Receiver, the officer of the Insolvency Service who deals with companies wound up by the courts, is named in 303 of the 304 winding-up order notices published in October 2026. It is shown separately and not ranked, because it acts by law rather than by appointment from a firm.
In members' voluntary liquidations, which close solvent companies and are not counted above, Begbies Traynor was appointed most often, 82 times.
How we count
One appointment is one company in one procedure in the month, from notices of administrators' and liquidators' appointments and resolutions to wind up in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes. A firm is counted once per company however many of its practitioners are named; where practitioners from two firms are appointed jointly, each firm is counted. Firms trading through several regional partnerships are counted as one group. The office holder could not be identified from the notice for 241 appointments, which are not included in any firm's total. These are counts of Gazette notices, not the Insolvency Service's official statistics, which are based on Companies House registrations and can differ.
Source: The Gazette insolvency notices, analysed by Small Cap News.