Cross-border Restructuring and Insolvency
We advise on cross-border restructurings and insolvencies, with particular experience in Spain, France, Italy, the Caribbean, USA and southern Africa; advising boards of distressed corporates, lenders/creditors in cooperative or contentious restructurings, potential investors seeking opportunities, and insolvency practitioners on rescue packages and associated disputes and asset recoveries.
Sectors and Services
Cross-border Restructuring & Insolvency
Our clients engage us on international or cross-border matters, whether that is acting for or in relation to a multi-national enterprise or advising on specific financial or trading relationships that suffer from distressed or insolvency issues. We cover the full range of restructuring and insolvency aspects, from informal rescue and restructuring processes, through formal procedures crossing jurisdictions to advising on contentious rights and claims arising from distressed and insolvent situations, including protecting and enforcing rights to recover assets and debts.
We analyse potential risks, identify strategic opportunities and provide commercial, sensible and practical advice to clients navigating cross-border or multi-jurisdictional restructuring and insolvency challenges. We combine our restructuring and insolvency knowledge with, and draw where necessary on, the expertise of our corporate, commercial, real estate, tax, intellectual property, trust, employment, regulatory and litigation colleagues in order to offer strategic solutions and to deliver seamless, successful outcomes.
We recognise the importance of domestic legal, regulatory and practical issues and the need to source excellent local advice in order to deliver coherent and creative global solutions and protect our clients’ interests. Our team has particular experience of working with (and sometimes personally in) Spain, France, Italy, the Caribbean, the United States and southern Africa.
Who do we act for or with?
We represent or advise lenders, banks, funds, other financial institutions and investors at all levels of the capital structure, as well as office holders and insolvency practitioners, corporates/directors, trustees, shareholders, creditors, court appointed supervisors or any individuals or stakeholders dealing with the consequences of financial stress or distress.
Through our memberships with INSOL, Lexwork International and Interact Law, we have developed a global network with foreign lawyers, corporate finance teams, accountants and forensic investigators.
What do we do?
Cross-border restructuring
Our dedicated cross-border restructuring team encompasses and facilitates the full range of expertise in order to meet our clients’ needs. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Debt restructuring and complex loan reschedulings
- Emergency new investment
- Distressed acquisitions/sales and corporate carve-outs
- Sale and purchase of distressed assets, debt and portfolios
- Schemes of arrangement
- Voluntary arrangements
- Restructuring plans
- Interacting with and representing multi-jurisdictional creditors, shareholders and financial institutions
- Migration of foreign restructured businesses
- Informal rescue options
- Contingency planning, workouts and turnaround strategies
- Credit bidding
- Out of court refinancings
- Distressed debt trading and investing
- Exit financings
- Directors’ duties
Cross-border insolvency and contentious litigation
Our experts advise on the whole array of cross-border insolvency issues which inevitably arise when financially stressed or distressed debtors own assets or have creditors in more than one country, or in off-shore jurisdictions. We are routinely engaged to either bring, defend, monetise or resolve cross-border insolvency disputes, or to advise on recognition of foreign insolvency officials and their powers, and issues relating to choice of law rules, jurisdiction rules and rules as to the enforcement of judgments. We are experienced in:
- Cross-border bankruptcy investigations
- Cross-border insolvency litigation
- Debtor, trustee and creditor representation
- Parallel proceedings
- Recognition proceedings and issues as to COMI
- Applications brought pursuant to section 426 of the Insolvency Act or other assistance applications
- UNCITRAL model law
- Advising on the impact of Brexit on cross-border insolvencies
- Disputes regarding valuation of estate assets
- Enforcement of creditors’ rights and remedies
Forensics, investigations, asset-tracing and recovery
We are adept at understanding and advising on the inherent risks that office holders face when having to find, recover and realise assets situated off-shore. We are experienced at following the money or asset(s) when they cross over foreign borders, or are at risk of dissipation.
We facilitate the best creative legal and commercial solutions to prosecute cross-border insolvency claims so that assets can be secured for recovery and realised for the benefit of insolvent estates or its creditors. Equally, we are experts at defending claims to assets owned by individuals or companies domiciled in England or Wales brought by foreign entities. Our expertise includes:
- Asset-tracing and recovery
- Evidence gathering and forensic investigations and analysis
- Search and seizure
- Third party disclosure orders
- Securing and enforcing foreign insolvency judgments
- Worldwide freezing and disclosure orders
