With miserable Christmas trading figures exacerbating an already challenging climate for UK retailers, a growing number of companies are turning to company voluntary arrangements ("CVAs") as a possible source of respite. Most commonly used by retailers and other UK companies to impose improved lease terms on their landlords, CVAs look set to come back into fashion.
Market Backdrop
So far this year, fewer European and American businesses have encountered financial distress that required either bankruptcy or restructuring procedures than in the same period in 2020. This decline occurred despite the ongoing economic impact of COVID-19.
There is much to admire in the EU's handling of the Italian banking crisis, but in allowing two lenders to escape BRRD rules, it has raised questions on the consistency of the EU state aid and resolution framework.
European Real Estate Finance: Market Update – Q1 2021 March 2021 Authors: Jeffrey Rubinoff, Dr. Thomas Flatten, Thierry Bosly, Hadrien Servais, Carl Hugo Parment, Fernando Navarro, Christophe Goossens, Julio Peralta, Angel Calleja, Aurélie Terlinden, Alexandra Stolt, Amitaben Patel & Brendon Vyas Further information on the response to COVID-19 can be found here, and we also have a German-language article, available here, looking at the impact on commercial leases. LIBOR Discontinuation Much has happened in the world of LIBOR Discontinuation since our last update.
European Leveraged Finance Alert Series: Issue 6
Legislative changes in Italy (starting from 2012) facilitated leveraged transactions facilitating security in both bank and bond financings and aligning bond and bank finance options. These changes have catalyzed creditors’ appetite for Italian leveraged finance transactions and helped fuel a resurgence in M&A activity in Italy. Here are ten (plus one) things to consider when doing a leveraged finance deal in Italy:
The Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced it is examining registrants’ compliance with key whistleblower provisions arising out of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act).
Before 1st October 2021, French law did not provide for the possibility to cram down shareholders, other than under Article L. 631-19-2 of the French Commercial Code, which sets conditions which are so stringent that it is not used in practice.
Directive 2019/2023 has let EU member states decide whether shareholders should be a class of “affected parties” subject to cross-class cram down or whether other measures should be implemented to avoid shareholders preventing, or making it difficult, in an unreasonable manner, the approval of a restructuring plan.
Over the Bank holiday weekend, the UK government announced that it intends to introduce new legislation to implement certain measures (detailed below) as soon as parliamentary time permits.