Business Rehabilitation Proceedings in Thailand

Overview of Rehabilitation Proceedings

The primary goal of business rehabilitation proceedings is to provide debtors who are facing insolvency with various mechanisms to address their financial difficulties. This includes restructuring their liabilities and assets while also ensuring that creditors receive repayment equal to or greater than the amount they would have received if the debtor had been declared bankrupt by the court.

Over the past decade, business rehabilitation proceedings in Thai courts have received a great deal of attention from debtors and creditors, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Business rehabilitation and bankruptcy proceedings have different objectives in court. As a result, Thai courts have a different perspective and set of criteria for considering and approving rehabilitation proceedings than for bankruptcy petitions. Both proceedings are outlined in the Bankruptcy Act B.E 2483 (1940). This article mainly discusses in-court business rehabilitation proceedings.

Under Thai bankruptcy law, a creditor can file a request for a debtor to be placed under an absolute receivership order and bankruptcy judgment. However, the debtor must be insolvent, and the debt owed to the creditor or creditors must be at least THB 1 million (for a debtor who is a natural person) or THB 2 million (for the debtor who is a juristic person). In order to know whether the latter requirement is met, the debt must be “determinable”—that is, known and monetarily quantifiable.

COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown measures to limit outbreaks in Thailand have caused significant financial difficulties for many business operators, large and small. Whether a business is a creditor or debtor, there is a high likelihood they have faced or will face a default caused by the pandemic. This article identifies three legal options available when a party defaults—civil cases, bankruptcy actions, and business rehabilitation actions—and compares key elements associated with each option. For context, those three options are defined as follows:

As the world economy struggles to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies and other creditors are exploring options to manage non-collectible debts. However, the tax costs and consequences of different approaches to settling debts are often overlooked when they should be key considerations, and unwary creditors are at risk of unexpected surprises. This article will analyze some common debt settlement options and their tax consequences.

Debt Offset

On May 26, 2020, Thai Airways International PCL submitted a petition for business rehabilitation, including a list of creditors, to the Central Bankruptcy Court. The court accepted the petition for consideration on the following day, and has scheduled a hearing for 9:00 a.m. on August 17, 2020, to determine whether Thai Airways should enter business rehabilitation. The court is now in the process of sending a copy of Thai Airways’ petition to the creditors whose names appear in the creditor list.

Thailand’s Official Receiver recently issued an important announcement relevant to all existing or potential creditors of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (“Thai Airways International”). The announcement details the Central Bankruptcy Court’s Order for rehabilitation of Thai Airways International and was published in the Royal Gazette on October 2, 2020.

2020 Tilleke & Gibbins International Ltd.

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Jay Cohen [email protected] With thanks to international intern Cassandra Allen

The Bankruptcy System in Cambodia

The bankruptcy system in Cambodia is governed by the 2007 Insolvency Law, which applies to all businesses (including natural persons operating sole proprietorships).

For aircraft leasing companies, having to repossess an aircraft from an airline that misses its rental payments is usually an option of last resort. The repossession process in Thailand can be time-consuming and costly, and often precludes future earnings. However, as a number of Thai airlines have defaulted on their payments over recent years, lessors have been left with no choice but to seek recovery of their valuable assets. This article provides an overview of the practical and legal considerations of aircraft repossession in Thailand.

In order to receive royalties, a trademark owner may license out its trademark rights to another party. To license trademark rights, a trademark license agreement must be made in writing and registered at the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), in accordance with Section 68 of the Thai Trademark Act. If a trademark license agreement is not registered, it will be void, according to Section 152 of the Civil and Commercial Code and the support of various Supreme Court judgments (Decisions 7770/2547, 6436/2543, and 6190/2550).