Looking back at the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit many companies hard and amplified disruptive trends in various sectors. In addition to other measures to address COVID-19 impact on businesses, Germany has made significant progress toward international best practices for restructuring: StaRUG — known as the German scheme — came into effect on 1 January 2021, as one of the most modern restructuring laws in the world. But how will StaRUG help German companies survive the crisis and what if insolvency is unavoidable?
Through implementing the EU Restructuring Directive, German restructuring and insolvency law will be modernized, more effective, and enriched by new instruments.
Durch die Umsetzung der EU Restrukturierungs-Richtlinie soll das deutsche Sanierungs- und Insolvenzrecht modernisiert, effektiver gestaltet und um neue Instrumentarien bereichert werden.
With the possibility of a no-deal Brexit looming large, the implications for Irish insolvency practitioners is something we will all have to consider. The insolvency landscape will most likely look very different when we all return to the office after Christmas. This is a discussion on some of the possible implications for Irish and UK insolvency practitioners post-Brexit.
Current Regime
Regierungsentwurf setzt EU Restrukturierungs-Richtlinie um und führt neues Sanierungsinstrumentarium ein.
Government draft of law implements EU Restructuring Framework, and introduces new restructuring instruments.
The Data Protection Commission ("the DPC") has issued useful guidelines for receivers in the context of data protection.
Once a receiver is appointed, they will have access to borrowers' personal data such as the address of the property put into receivership and certain details concerning the borrowers.
The main points of the DPC's guidance are as follows:
Successfully executing an acquisition from stress, distress, or insolvency requires a creative approach to reconcile competing interests.
We will soon enter a phase of the Covid19 era when more and more companies will be forced to apply for protection from their creditors under the Examinership provisions of the Companies Act, 2014. Security as always will be a key consideration for the stakeholders in this restructuring process. Fixed and floating charges are almost always well protected but what about personal or corporate guarantees?
The legislation
The legislation is very specific regarding guarantees.
As a result of the legal amendments on German tenancy law that were passed in March 2020 in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, landlords are not allowed to terminate lease agreements for default of rental payments occurring in the period from April 1 to June 30, 2020, until June 30, 2022, if those defaults result from the COVID-19 pandemic.