Restructuring plans under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 are a powerful tool for restructuring the debts of a company.

Il decreto-legge 13 giugno 2023, n. 69 (in Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale – n. 136 del 13 giugno 2023), coordinato con la legge di conversione 10 agosto 2023, n. 103 recante: «Disposizioni urgenti per l’attuazione di obblighi derivanti da atti dell’Unione europea e da procedure di infrazione e pre-infrazione pendenti nei confronti dello Stato italiano» ha introdotto alcune modifiche alla disciplina della crisi d’impresa

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Un regime transitorio

The law of 7 August 2023 on business preservation and modernisation of bankruptcy law (the Law) will enter into force on 1 November 2023.

In addition to introducing certain amendments to the existing insolvency framework, the Law implements EU Directive 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and the Council of 20 June 2019 on preventive restructuring frameworks.

Scope

The Law applies to all types of commercial companies and traders (commerçants), including special limited partnerships.

1. SOLVENCY II 1.1 Solvency II Directive review: ECON agrees position on Solvency II Directive review On 27 July 2023, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published a report on its agreed position on the Proposal for a Directive amending the Solvency II Directive1 (Proposed Directive).

In brief

A selection of newly announced legislation and court decisions reinterpreting private law.

Contents

The Package Travel Regulations (“PTRs”), which came into force in 2018, have been tested significantly in recent years with failures such as Thomas Cook and Monarch, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whilst commonplace in the U.S., uptier transactions in which a borrower teams up with a subset of creditors to issue new “super priority” debt by amending or exchanging existing debt documents, have not been widely used in Europe.

However, with increasing macro economic pressures and financial market instability, we may see more European borrowers taking advantage of flexibility in cov-lite debt documentation to implement liability management transactions as an alternative to, or even as part of, more formal restructurings.

El Tribunal Supremo, en su sentencia número 513/2024, de 17 de abril (Rec. 2443/2020) ("la Sentencia"), confirma la válida legitimación del recurrente declarado en concurso de acreedores con suspensión de facultades, en tanto la administración concursal omitió el deber de sustituirlo en el procedimiento en trámite.

On 19 June 2024, the expected amendment to the Act on Transformations of Business Corporations and Cooperatives was published in the Collection of Laws. The amendment mainly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/2121 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

In addition to harmonising the process of cross-border transformations, unifying the regulation and reducing the administrative burden, the amendment also introduces a completely new form of transformation.

Below we summarise the key changes.

International case law

European jurisprudence on universal and territorial procedures

Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of April 18, 2024 (AIR BERLIN case)