A borrower who, without having the right to do so, would not pay a credit instalment due between 12 March 2020 and one month after the end of the state of health emergency (which is supposed to last two months as from 24 March 2020 but could be extended), could argue that the loan documents' acceleration clause and default interest clause (a liquidated damage clause) shall only take effect after that period pursuant to Ordinance No. 2020-306 of 25 March 2020, adopted further to the "emergency" Law No. 2020-290 of 23 March 2020.
1. It is hard to get rid of this preconceived idea that unlike other systems, the French insolvency system (excessively) favours debtors at the expense of their creditors.
Some recent decisions make it possible to question this idea.
These decisions deal with the conditions required for the approval of a safeguard plan and are warnings to debtors that might be tempted to force their plan through.
Safeguard proceedings end with the court-approval of a restructuring plan when there are serious chances of rescuing the business (French Commercial Code, Art. L.626-1).
TA Montreuil 18-1-2018 n°1701374
Le tribunal administratif de Montreuil apporte des précisions dans le cadre des opérations de dissolution sans liquidation.
D’une part, il étend la solution rendue en matière de fusions aux transmissions universelles de patrimoine en jugeant que les charges et les dettes nées chez l’absorbée avant la fusion sont prise en compte pour le calcul de la rémunération des apports et doivent donc être considérées comme un élément du prix d’acquisition et non comme une charge se rapportant à la gestion de l’absorbante.
Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on insolvency proceedings (recast) (the “Recast Insolvency Regulation“) applies to insolvency proceedings opened after 26 June 2017. Ordinance of 2 November 2017 (the “Ordinance“) amended the French Code de commerce to reflect the Recast Insolvency Regulation by inserting a new Title IX into Book VI.
Judicial remedies against the opening of main insolvency proceedings
The European regulation of 20 May 2015 on insolvency proceedings (the “Insolvency Regulation”) came into force a year ago, significantly modifying European insolvency law. An ordinance published in November 2017 started the process of adapting French law to reflect the requirements of the Insolvency Regulation. A decree of 5 June 2018 (the “Decree”) modifying the regulatory part of Book VI of the French Code de Commerce is the final piece in the jigsaw.
When executing public M&A transactions, dealmakers need to understand local market practice as well as the local regulatory environment.
1. Background
The sauvegarde filing by Camaïeu’s holding company Modacin France SAS (Holdco) has been reported in the French press as one of the first cases where a safeguard proceeding has been opened by a company’s management in order to prevent its creditors from enforcing the fiducie previously granted to them over the shares of Holdco’s subsidiary as part of a court-approved restructuring proceeding (conciliation) of the group back in 2016.
Presented as a major measure of the five-year French presidential term, the law “on growth and business transformation”, also known as the PACTE Act, came into force on May 24th, 2019. Amongst the changes that were brought, some of them deserve a particular focus.
Two phases of the reform. The PACTE Act revises the insolvency legal framework and mainly empowers the executive to directly implement the EU insolvency directive and to reform the law on security interests within a period of two years.
The first phase of the reform
Saam Golshani and Alexis Hojabr, White & Case LLP
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Pre-Pack. The whole publication is available here.