Par décision du 5 mai 2020, un tribunal de district zurichois a approuvé la reprise de parties d'une entreprise d'une débitrice sous forme d'une transaction dite de « pre-pack » (préemballage), simultanément à l'octroi d'un sursis provisoire. L'outil du « pre-pack », dans lequel la vente des actifs du débiteur est préparée par avance, en vue d'une procédure ultérieure de sursis concordataire, est encore peu utilisé en Suisse.

In a decision of 5 May 2020, a district court in the Canton of Zurich approved the transfer of business units of a debtor in a so-called pre-pack transaction simultaneously with the grant of a provisional debt restructuring moratorium. "Pre-pack" transactions in which a sale of debtor's assets are prepared prior to, but in view of, subsequent composition proceedings are still relatively rare in Switzerland. The most recent judgement sets out clearly the relevant requirements and provides a helpful guideline for future transactions.

The COVID-19 regulation on insolvency law set out the conditions under which COVID-19-related over-indebtedness of the company does not to lead to a declaration of bankruptcy by the board of directors (see our blog post "COVID-19 Deferral of Bankruptcy Filing in Switzerland").

Luc Defferrard and Tervel Stoyanov, Walder Wyss Ltd

This is an extract from the 2020 edition of GRR's the Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.

In summary

NOVEMBER 2020 Corona: directors’ duties and restructuring options in the BeNeLuCh Corona: directors’ duties and restructuring options in the BeNeLuCh I Introduction The rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is leading to far-reaching health and safety measures all around the world. For people at home, but also for businesses, this creates a situation of great uncertainty. Certain governments have taken (extensive) measures to help businesses and its employees.

The Swiss Insurance Oversight Act has been subject to a partial revision in order to bring the protection of insurance customers in line with international developments and to improve the competitiveness of the Swiss insurance sector. The new provisions include a new insolvency restructuring regime, a customer categorisation making supervisory requirements proportional to the protection required by customers as well as new rules of conduct applicable to insurance undertakings and intermediaries.

On 1st January 2019, the revised Swiss Law on Cross-Border Insolvencies entered into force. The first experiences with the revised law are throughout positive and show that the newly introduced simplifications of the Swiss cross-border insolvency regime are increasingly used by foreign liquidators and their counsels.

Previous regime

I. BESCHLUSS DES BUNDESRATS VOM 14. OKTOBER 2020

In der Sitzung vom 14. Oktober 2020 hat der Bundesrat beschlossen, die vorübergehenden Massnahmen zur Verhinderung von coronabedingten Konkursen nicht zu verlängern. Gleichzeitig setzte er aber die vom Parlament im Rahmen der Aktienrechtsrevision beschlossene mögliche Verlängerung der provisorischen Nachlassstundung bereits auf den 20. Oktober 2020 in Kraft.

The new set of Swiss laws on blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT; Blockchain/DLT Laws) has been approved by the Swiss Parliament on 25 September 2020 and is thus now in final form. Subject to a referendum, which is unlikely, the Blockchain/DLT Laws will presumably enter into force early next year.

The main topics of the Blockchain/DLT Laws are: