The new Slovakian preventive restructuring framework aims to provide companies with a viable toolkit to deal with financial distress at an early stage and to counter the fact that the majority of Slovak companies enter an insolvency process having been insolvent for more than a year.

Main characteristics

The Slovak parliament recently passed a new law – The Temporary Protection of Distressed Undertakings Before Creditors – which came into effect on 1 January 2021. It replaces the current temporary protection (moratorium) adopted at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis.

The new regulation will only be granted where a majority of the unrelated creditors involved agree with the stay. This marks a departure from the COVID-19 moratorium, which could be easily accessed by all debtors impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, the Slovak Parliament has adopted a series of new laws aiming predominantly to support employment, to provide financial aid and tax relief (particularly to SMEs) and to preserve and regulate legal enforcement.

The insolvency law related measures include mainly:

Debtor's filing

The statutory time limit for debtors to file for bankruptcy due to over-indebtedness (balance sheet test) that occurred between 12 March and 30 April 2020 has been prolonged from 30 to 60 days (and is expected to be prolonged further).

Nel quinto appuntamento con lo studio di Francesco Calabria sulla liquidazione dei fondi immobiliari, Francesco illustra gli strumenti di prevenzione e mitigazione delle responsabilità post liquidazione.

Stabilite le modalità con le quali si intende dare attuazione al programma di liquidazione di un FIA, il secondo passaggio fondamentale da effettuarsi a cura della SGR riguarda l’individuazione di appropriati strumenti di prevenzione delle responsabilità patrimoniali che potranno emergere successivamente alla chiusura della procedura di liquidazione.

Continua l’appuntamento con lo studio di Francesco Calabria sulla liquidazione dei fondi immobiliari. Nel quarto approfondimento, Francesco illustra il rapporto tra liquidazione e tipi di fondi.

Nel sesto appuntamento sulla liquidazione dei fondi immobiliari, Francesco Calabria ci parla delle questioni che hanno generato contenziosi sull’argomento.

Parte I: Liquidazione del fondo e responsabilità

Quando si parla di liquidazione di un fondo di investimento alternativo (“FIA”) immobiliare ci si riferisce, in generale, al procedimento che porta all’estinzione di quel peculiare centro di imputazione di posizioni giuridiche soggettive che è il FIA stesso.

Background

New rules strengthen the position of individual creditors and weaken the concept of insolvency proceedings as a means of final collective satisfaction of creditors. Taylor Wessing in Bratislava, as an advisor to the Ministry of Justice, has been actively involved in the creation of this new regime.

New provisions

Summary

The Existing System

Despite its introduction to the Slovak legal system in 2006, current laws on debt relief within the framework of bankruptcy of natural persons have not been a viable solution.

Basing the legal institute of debt relief on a two-step procedure:

• starting with bankruptcy (i.e. liquidation of (all) the debtor’s assets)
• then followed by a three-year trial period at the end of which the court releases a resolution on the possibility of personal bankruptcy

has in fact hindered debtors from filing.