Six years after the reform of the Italian bankruptcy law, new rules to regulate restructuring procedures were passed by the Italian government on 15 June 2012. The purpose of the new rules is to facilitate access to procedures for restructuring debt for firms in financial difficulty. The two main changes introduced by the reforms are:
· compositions with creditors and restructuring agreements will be able to be negotiated in parallel. The reforms permit a debtor to file for the composition – thereby obtaining a statutory moratorium on enforcement – without having to submit all relevant documentation to the court. The debtor will be given between 60 and 180 days in which to submit required documentation and either proceed with the composition proceedings or indeed, implement a restructuring agreement; and
· US-style debtor-in-possession financing with super-priority for the new lender will be possible in circumstances where an expert certifies that the particular financing is necessary for the survival of the company.
Six years after the reform of Italian bankruptcy law and the introduction of new procedures for restructuring debt, and two years after the most recent changes to specific aspects of restructuring, the Italian government has approved new legislation aimed at improving shortcomings in the Italian Bankruptcy Law (Legge Fallimentare). It is at present not known when the reform will become effective.
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