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Financier Worldwide canvasses the opinions of leading professionals around the world on the latest trends in bankruptcy & restructuring.

UNITED STATES

Evan Blum

GlassRatner

“The last 12 months have seen fewer bankruptcies as previous excesses were wrung out of the system between 2008 and 2011. In particular, larger bankruptcy filings have been on the decline as these were largely addressed early on in the Great Recession. Additionally, lenders have been more inclined to maintain their larger clients through refinancings or out-of-court restructurings, as opposed to filing these customers, particularly when valuations are questionable.”

CANADA

Raj Sahni

Bennett Jones LLP

“Generally speaking, we have seen relatively fewer large bankruptcy and insolvency cases commenced in Canada in the last 12 to 18 months. However, I don’t think one can say that this is necessarily as a result of fewer business failures. There may be a variety of factors at play, including the availability of relatively cheap bank and other debt financing in Canada in certain sectors, willingness on the part of lenders and creditors to forbear and extend-out credit terms and covenants, or other factors that have little to do with the actual health of the underlying business.”

BRAZIL

Fábio Rosas

TozziniFreire Advogados

“The Brazilian Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law (BRL) – Federal Law n. 11.101/2005 – came into force on 9 June 2005, bringing significant changes to the legal treatment of Brazilian companies that are insolvent or facing financial difficulties. The BRL established three major mechanisms that may be applied to troubled companies: bankruptcy as forced liquidation; in-court restructuring; and out-of-court restructuring.”

GERMANY

Tobias Verlende

Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

“Leaving the years 2008 and 2009 aside, when the financial crisis hit almost every economy, the numbers of corporate insolvency proceedings have been declining for a decade. In 2012, the total number, which amounted to roughly 30,000, declined by 2.2 percent. This is a rather minor reduction compared to the year before, when we experienced a decline of 6.1 percent.”

RUSSIA

Sergey A. Treshchev

Squire Sanders

“According to the official website of the Supreme State Commercial Court of the Russian Federation, in 2009 Russian state commercial courts initiated 35,545 insolvency cases. This number was on par with the 33,270 and 27,422 in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Based on information at hand, during the last year the number of insolvency proceedings seemed to be maintained at the same level without showing a significant increase or decrease.”

NETHERLANDS

Robin de Wit

Holland Van Gijzen advocaten en notarissen LLP (EY)

“In the last 18 months the number of bankruptcies has increased tremendously. In 2012, the number increased by 29 percent compared to 2011, and in the first half of 2013 the number of bankruptcies increased even further. The number of bankruptcy orders during this period are the highest number ever measured.”

SPAIN

Juan Hormaechea

Ashurst

“The trend over the last 12-18 months has been a continued and steady increase in the number of insolvencies, affecting companies of all sizes. While the insolvency trend during the period 2008 to 2011 focused mainly on insolvencies of real estate developers, their suppliers and other companies operating in related sectors, after 2011 we have seen a number of significant non-real estate related insolvencies."

SWEDEN

Johan Nordström

EY

“There has been an increasing number of bankruptcies since 2011, after they began to decrease following 2008 when there was a peak of bankruptcies. The number of bankruptcies during the first half of 2013 is on the same level as during 2008 and 2009, approximately 10 percent higher than in 2012. A notable change in pattern has been that larger companies are being hit, not only small and medium sized firms. This is mainly a result of the weak international economy and the uncertainty in the Swedish economy.”

SOUTH AFRICA

Peter Van Den Steen

V-Squared Business Rescue Services

“Businesses had overextended themselves when the going was good. However, since the world economy has taken a severe downturn, and with the inextricable links between global economies, South Africa has experienced the same downturns – be it with somewhat of a lag. Difficulties in fund raising efforts in the local and international markets have resulted in companies running out of cash with regard to capital expansion projects and so on.”

CONTRIBUTORS 

Ashurst

Bennett Jones LLP

EY

GlassRatner

Holland Van Gijzen advocaten en notarissen LLP (EY)

Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

Squire Sanders

TozziniFreire Advogados

V-Squared Business Rescue Services