1. State of the Restructuring Market

1.1 Market Trends and Changes

State of the Restructuring and Insolvency Market

There were 27,359 insolvencies in France as of the end of September 2021, down 25.1% from the same period in 2020, and down 47.9% from September 2019. Such reduction is relatively stable across all sectors, including those most severely affected by the health-related restrictions, such as accommodation and food services (down 44.2% year-on-year) and trade (down 28.1% year on year).

Fewer Insolvencies for More Opportunities

At the end of 2021, corporate bankruptcies (for most company sizes and in most sectors) were at their lowest level compared to the pre-COVID-19 figures from 2019, with a 50% drop in insolvency proceedings and a 10% decrease in pre-insolvency situations. This was largely due to the temporary impact of government emergency measures and support, including:

O BANCO ESPÍRITO SANTO, S.A. – EM LIQUIDAÇÃO anunciou que o prazo para a apresentação das reclamações de créditos no âmbito do seu processo de liquidação terminará no dia 11 de dezembro de 2017.

O termo do prazo para apresentação de reclamações de crédito é estabelecido em função da última citação de credor no estrangeiro, contando-se 60 dias a partir dessa data. De acordo com o referido comunicado, a mais recente citação conhecida foi efetuada no dia 11 de outubro.

BANCO ESPÍRITO SANTO, S.A. – EM LIQUIDAÇÃO has announced that the time limit for the lodgement of claims under its liquidation proceedings ends on 11 December 2017.

The time limit for lodging claims is set with reference to the last service of notice to a creditor abroad and the 60-day period counted from said date. According to the aforementioned announcement, the last known notice was served on 11 October.

The announcement reserves the possibility of extending the time limit in the event of subsequent services.

No passado dia 1 de julho de 2017 entrou em vigor o Decreto-lei 79/2017 de 30 de junho de 2017 (“DL 79/2017”), que altera, entre outros, o Código da Insolvência e da Recuperação de Empresas, alterando, nomeadamente, o regime jurídico do Procedimento Especial de Revitalização (“PER”) que fica agora reservado a empresas.

Destacamos ainda outras alterações relevantes introduzidas pelo DL 79/2017: 

On 1 July 2017, Decree-law 79/2017, of 30 June 2017 (“DL 79/2017”), entered into force. This piece of legislation amends, most notably, the Insolvency and Recovery of Companies Code and the legal framework of the Special Revitalization Procedure (“SRP”), which is now reserved only to companies.

Other noteworthy amendments introduced by DL 79/2017 are as follows: