THE latest business insolvency index from Experian has revealed that British businesses finished the last fiscal year stronger than they started it.

The average financial strength score, an indication of how likely a firm is to fail in the next 12 months, improved from 80.99 going into April, 2010, to 81.58 by the end of March, 2011.

The biggest increase came from mid-sized companies, those with between 100 and 500 employees.

The average score for this segment of the business population rose from 81.18 to 82.81.

During the last fiscal year, the average annual financial strength score was 81.14 – an improvement on 2009/10 when it was 80.83.

In terms of March, 2011, the monthly insolvency rate was 0.11% – the same as that recorded in March, 2010.

Companies with 11-25 employees continued to have the highest insolvency rates, while the North East and Yorkshire also continued to record the highest rates of insolvency. Max Firth, managing director of Experian pH, said: “Companies transitioning from being a small to a medium-sized business are often among those most prone to failure, and our March data confirms this.”