Finance Minister Grant Robertson yesterday afternoon announced a number of proposed temporary changes to the Companies Act, with the stated purpose to help businesses facing insolvency due to COVID-19 remain viable.

The temporary changes include:

A new funding round could be a good time to sort out capital complexity. We take a high level view.

Many privately backed companies go through several financing rounds and find they end up with a very complex capitalisation structure, with various classes of preferred shares, ordinary shares and deferred shares, not to mention employee incentives and debt instruments. A new funding round is a good opportunity to restructure and simplify this legacy.