Begbies Traynor, the financial services group, on Friday emerged as one of the few winners of the economic downturn as it revealed that demand for its insolvency expertise had soared.

The group, which raised £12.5m from a share placing in September, said in a trading update ahead of interim results in the new year that revenues from the insolvency business made up 80 per cent of its overall revenues in the first half.