The Compendium

A Comprehensive Companion for All in the Insolvency and Restructuring Profession

Z

Zombie Companies

Zombie companies are indebted enterprises that only have enough income to pay the interest on their loans after meeting operating expenses and fixed expenditures. As a result, these businesses typically rely on refinancing debt to maintain their existence.

In many respects these are companies that are just about hanging onto their existence, doing all they can to avoid an insolvency intervention.

The prevalence of bounce back loans, recovery loans and other Governmentbacked lending, with finance being available to businesses that wouldn’t otherwise have been able to continue has created a layer of companies that exist mouth-to-mouth from month-to-month.