Summary of the 2025 International European Insolvency Symposium

<p>ABI’s International European Insolvency Symposium took place in Berlin from October 26-28, 2025, at The Ritz-Carlton, Berlin. This event was attended by many prominent insolvency and restructuring practitioners and lawyers, attracting attendees from across the globe.</p> <p>The conference opened with a fascinating keynote by <strong>Morgan O’Neill</strong> of Sound Point Capital Management L.P., moderated by <strong>Ryan Maupin</strong> of Deloitte.

Cross-Border Lessons: Latin American Companies in U.S. Chapter 11

<p>Latin America’s largest corporations have repeatedly chosen the Southern District of New York as the venue for their most consequential restructurings. The COVID-era airline wave, which included Avianca (Colombia), Grupo Aeroméxico (Mexico) and LATAM Airlines (Chile), all filed chapter 11 in 2020, emerging with slimmer fleets, re-cut lease obligations and fresh capital structures.

COMI and International Insolvency Proceedings

With Regulation 2015/848[1] (the “Insolvency Proceedings Regulation”), the European Union (EU) has enacted a set of rules designed to establish jurisdiction in insolvency proceedings. As in the case of several recently enacted EU directives and regulations, the cornerstone of the Insolvency Proceedings Regulation and criteria to establish jurisdiction is the debtor’s “center of main interests” (COMI).

Retrospective on Chapter 15 Filings in 2024

Perhaps against expectations, 2024 included considerable bankruptcy activity in the U.S. However, the number of filings under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, which implements the UN Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and provides bankruptcy courts authority to recognize foreign insolvency proceedings, enforce orders of the foreign court, and grant related relief and assistance, remained close to preceding years.

International Matter of the Year

McDermott International

The restructuring of Houston-headquartered McDermott International, a global engineering group, was the biggest and most important restructuring in 2023/24 in terms of jurisdictions involved, innovation, degree of opposition and quantum. Against fierce opposition in multiple jurisdictions, the debtors successfully consummated this c.$5 billion restructuring via a U.K.