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Background

Under German law, when a company becomes insolvent or over-indebted, its directors are obliged to file for insolvency. If they fail to fulfil this duty, according to s 64 German limited liability company Act (GmbHG) from this point in time onwards, they have to compensate the company for those payments which (objectively) would not have been made by a prudent businessman. Such imprudence is presumed.

In practice, s 64 is one of the most powerful tools available to insolvency administrators claiming against directors.

Anders als die Insolvenzordnung, sieht die EU-Richtlinie zum vorinsolvenzlichen Sanierungsverfahren keine Einschränkung der Arbeitnehmerrechte vor.

The qualification of a right as a 'right in rem' (zakelijk recht), within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1346/2000 of 29 May 2000 on insolvency proceedings (the "Regulation") must be determined according to the law of the place where the asset concerned is situated and the right in rem must satisfy certain criteria set out in Article 5(2) of the Regulation.

With its judgment of November 28, 2016, the German Supreme Tax Court (Bundesfinanzhof; “BFH”) dismissed the application of the tax administration’s so-called restructuring decree (Sanierungserlass). The restructuring decree allowed, subject to certain conditions, a suspension and abatement of taxes on so-called cancellation-of-debt income (“COD-Income”) otherwise resulting from certain recapitalization measures such as the waiver of debt and “debt-to-equity swaps”.

Suppose you were a German bank lending to a Spanish debtor under a loan agreement governed by German law. Once your Spanish debtor stops paying, the bank would have to obtain a German legal judgment and would then have to enforce it in Spain. Any measure to secure the debtor's assets in the meantime, is typically subject to the jurisdiction where the asset is located, or subject to lengthy recognition proceedings. Having to resort to local law measures usually puts foreign creditors in a worse-off position than local ones.

While the number of corporate insolvencies in Germany has declined over the last couple of years, the general market perception is that the number of insolvencies may increase again in 2017. Also, as more larger companies are facing distressed situations, the overall value of distressed debt is therefore expected to rise as well.

The legal framework for restructuring & insolvency in Germany will also change in 2017, not only based on domestic legislation, but also because of developments on the EU level.

„Wie komme ich an Geld, das mir ein säumiger Geschäftspartner schuldet?" Diese Frage beschäftigt viele Unternehmen täglich.

Grundsätzlich gilt: Einen Zugriff auf das Vermögen des Schuldners bekommt der Gläubiger erst dann, wenn ein Gericht den Schuldner zur Zahlung verurteilt hat. Wann das Geld tatsächlich fließt, hängt daher von der Prozessdauer ab.

German insolvency law contains provisions that allow for the challenge of payments/securitisation of certain shareholder loans in insolvency proceedings. The reason for this is that under German insolvency law, a loan repayment claim of a shareholder against ‘his’ corporation is subordinated by law (sec. 39 para. 1 no. 5 German Insolvency Code).

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the council on preventive restructuring frameworks, second chance and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedures and amending Directive 2012/30/EU