Worked Out
GRR surveys individual countries’ cross-border restructuring and insolvency regimes to bring you everything you need to know about operating there – including the key players in the market.Brazil
Even the past is uncertain: Brazil Worked Out
For the latest of our ‘Worked Out’ features, GRR spoke to a crop of local practitioners about the lack of certainty in the Brazilian restructuring market and its side effects – from local banks trying to cut themselves out of restructurings to equity holders delaying filing before the country’s courts. Will proposed changes to the law bring more predictability? GRR investigates.
Is the best yet to come?
Brazil’s infamous ‘car wash’ scandal has unexpectedly helped develop Brazil’s restructuring framework but there is still a lot of room for improvement. What still needs to change, and which tools would local practitioners like to see included in the new law? GRR finds out.
Banks and shareholders: where is the leverage?
Unlike in other jurisdictions, shareholders have historically played a powerful role in Brazilian restructurings, while a small band of the country’s banks have been able to sit outside negotiations, unwilling to accept haircuts. Are things going to change?
Distressed investors on the horizon?
The uncertainty in the Brazilian restructuring market has made it difficult to attract local investors, but there are signs that foreign investments are on the uptick. There is still work to be done, and lawyers say fixing the country’s DIP financing legislation would be a good start.
Names to know in Brazil
GRR's guide to the firms and individuals you need to know in Brazil's restructuring market.
Ireland
A viable alternative: Ireland Worked Out
Against the backdrop of Brexit and the economic impact that may have on the UK’s closest neighbour, GRR examines whether Dublin is ready to play a valuable supporting role to London in the years to come.
Weatherford and Ballantyne
Two recent cases show that Ireland’s restructuring regime, particularly its lesser-known scheme of arrangement, may soon get its moment to shine.
Looking ahead and Brexit
Ireland’s economy has been buoyant in recent years and the long tide of crash-era property enforcement work is subsiding, lawyers say. But more work is on its way thanks to Brexit and multinationals looking local.
Names to know in Ireland
A list of the key names to know in the Dublin restructuring scene, from Irish law firms to international law firms and non-lawyer insolvency practitioners.
Spain
A victim of its own success? Spain Worked Out
GRR is happy to present the latest instalment in its Worked Out series, this time focusing on Spain - whose scheme mechanism in recent years has gained it a reputation as one of the 'best pupils' of international restructuring.
Spain Worked Out: Economic stability, political instability
When GRR visited Spain last June, it was nearly three months after its third general election in as many years – but still without a functioning government – with predictions of a fourth general election and further political instability abound.
Spain Worked Out: The highs and lows of homologation
Spain had no pre-petition restructuring tool until 2009. Its first attempt to create one was rather limited. The legislation wasn’t clear on the requirements for the petition itself, and Spanish courts construed it in very different ways, with some interpreting it as granting a temporary moratorium during which the debtor could attempt to strike a deal, but after which it would still be required to enter insolvency proceedings at the end.
Spain Worked Out: Spain’s reforms wish list
A new, consolidated Insolvency Act and the forthcoming transposition of the European preventive frameworks directive offer opportunities for change in Spain. But Spanish practitioners have other issues on their wish lists for reform too, including specific tweaks to the legislation to clarify points of contention, and broader desires, such as better resourcing of the Spanish courts.
Names to know in Spain
GRR's guide to the firms and individuals you need to know in Spain's restructuring market.
Indonesia
An unpredictable landscape: Indonesia Worked Out
The latest in GRR's 'Worked Out' series examines Indonesia, one of the most populous and resource-rich economies in the world – but one where restructurings can be unpredictable and deals opaque. By Douglas Thomson in Jakarta and Singapore
An unpredictable landscape
Forged in the fires of the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia’s bankruptcy law has some surprising idiosyncrasies and encourages a restructuring culture defined by pragmatism and flexibility. In other words, it doesn’t look like any other bankruptcy law in the world.
There’s always a deal to be done: conflict and cooperation in Indonesia
Indonesia’s bankruptcy law provides remarkable latitude for workouts, so long as they can get creditor support – but the efforts to reach those compromises can see both sharp practices and consensual negotiation.
Try to be good – avoiding corruption in Indonesia’s restructurings
Indonesia has a reputation for casual corruption, allied with a court system riddled with inefficiencies both innocent and malign. That has scared off a lot of non-Indonesians from entering the country – but it isn’t difficult for practitioners, especially on the corporate side, to build a successful practice with clean hands.
Names to know in Indonesia
To be successful in Indonesia, relationships are everything. GRR presents a guide to the firms and individuals it’s essential to know in Indonesia’s restructuring market.
China and Hong Kong
Changes, hopes and fears: China and Hong Kong Worked Out
GRR presents the latest in our Worked Out series, this time profiling China and Hong Kong. With headwinds including an extraordinary non-performing loan load, slowing growth, political tensions locally, and a trade war with the US, restructuring professionals in China and Hong Kong are getting ready for what’s around the corner.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Changes, hopes and fears in China
The past five years have seen a shift in Chinese restructuring practice with the concept of reorganisation increasingly being seen as a business tool, rather than an admission of failure. But practitioners say there’s still a way to go, pointing out that creditors’ rights need to be strengthened, and personal bankruptcy remains entirely uncatered for.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Restructuring and the State
In China, more so than in other jurisdictions, it’s impossible to avoid the government for a restructuring of any significance – particularly municipal and local government. That’s not going to alter any time soon, but government attitudes towards company failure and restructuring are changing.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Night of the living debt
Despite the growing power of the Chinese economy, its prodigious load of non-performing loans is posing both challenges and opportunities for local restructuring practitioners.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Headwinds and opportunities in China
As a trade war with the US puts a squeeze on many Chinese industries, the government is pursuing a US$1 trillion-plus global investment project set to dramatically expand its cross-border engagement. Is this a perfect storm for the cross-border restructuring market?
“Things have worked because they had to”: restructuring without a regime in Hong Kong
Part of our "China and Hong Kong Worked Out" series: Hong Kong’s restructuring practitioners are, by necessity, creative. Without a restructuring and insolvency regime beyond the scheme of arrangement inherited from the British, practitioners have a “make-do-and-mend” approach aided by a supple judiciary and a can-do attitude among professionals.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Singapore’s challenge to Hong Kong
A new restructuring regime in Singapore is shining the light on Hong Kong’s lack of a statutory regime at home.
China and Hong Kong Worked Out: Imagine there’s no countries
“One country, two systems” is the principle governing Hong Kong and China’s constitutional arrangements. But their two restructuring and insolvency regimes haven’t always worked that well together. Now both jurisdictions are looking at a mutual recognition regime for insolvency matters and considering new measures for the recognition of foreign proceedings.
Hong Kong – recent cases
A sample of Hong Kong's most notable recent cases
Names to know in Hong Kong and China
It’s not easy for foreign firms to get work in China, and local is everything. In both China and Hong Kong, having restructuring advisers and lawyers who understand the local market is invaluable. GRR presents a guide to the firms who are most active and most respected in both jurisdictions.
Cayman
On the map: Cayman worked out
Cheaper than other financial centres, fast and flexible when necessary and with planned reforms on the horizon; can Cayman compete? GRR investigates
Names to know in Cayman
Read on for all the judges, lawyers and other types of restructuring and insolvency advisers you need to know in the Cayman Islands.
Delaware
A well-oiled machine: Delaware worked out
Delaware has been one of the most important forums for the world’s largest bankruptcies for over three decades. In the latest of GRR’s Worked Out series, we probe what makes Delaware an attractive restructuring hub, from its experienced judges, to some fairly pioneering local rules - and see what other jurisdictions can learn from it.
Names to know in Delaware
Though Delaware plays host to some of the world’s largest bankruptcies, it boasts a relatively small community of lawyers – made up of local, national and international firms – and a slate of six specialist bankruptcy judges.
Singapore
Singapore Worked Out
GRR profiles Singapore in the first of a new type of feature, assessing different jurisdictions around the world to see how amenable they are for cross-border insolvency and restructuring.
Names to know in Singapore
Singapore's judges, local firms, international firms and non-law practitioners.
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