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In brief On 1 January 2021, the Federal Government's post-COVID small business restructuring reform package1 came into effect.

This article discusses considerations for credit funds that face a restructuring situation in the post-COVID-19 world — whether one largely caused by the challenges posed by the pandemic or one simply accelerated by such challenges — and how workouts of these investments present their own challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the rescue of struggling but viable businesses front of the agenda. The initial response of the Belgian government and legislator was a moratorium on enforcement measures and bankruptcy petitions. Such moratorium can however not be a structural solution in the long term, and expired on 31 January 2021.

In brief

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the rescue of struggling but viable businesses front of the agenda.  The initial response of the Belgian government and legislator was a moratorium on enforcement measures and bankruptcy petitions.  Such moratorium can however not be a structural solution in the long term, and expired on 31 January 2021.

In brief

Creditors commonly find that their applications to wind up a company are suddenly deferred at the last minute by the appointment of a voluntary administrator.  Now, in the early days of the small business restructuring (Part 5.3B) process, the courts are already grappling with those circumstances in the context of that new regime. At the time of writing1, only four restructuring appointments under Part 5.3B have been notified to ASIC. Two of them have been the subject of court proceedings.

The resulting decisions reveal:

El impacto sostenido en la actividad económica que está teniendo la pandemia COVID-19 ha llevado al Gobierno, por un lado, a adoptar una serie de medidas destinadas a reforzar la liquidez y solvencia de las empresas y, por otro, a extender una vez más algunas de las medidas en el ámbito de la Administración de Justicia que se habían adoptado en el marco del Real Decreto-ley 16/2020, de 28 de abril, posteriormente confirmadas en la Ley 3/2020, de 18 de septiembre, así como en el Real Decreto-Ley 34/2020, de 17 de noviembre.

La Sala Primera del Tribunal Supremo ha dictado una nueva sentencia, la 46/2021, de 2 de febrero, en la que se confirma lo ya señalado en la Sentencia 4/2021, de 15 de enero de 2021. Dos sentencias miméticas en todo (casi hasta en las partes).

La doctrina ahora asentada por la 46/2021 se resume: