Since the previous financial crisis, so well before the COVID-era, many European countries spent considerable time sharpening their restructuring toolkits. We contributed with our view on this topic in the publication Recent Developments in the International Restructering Market from a Dutch Law Perspective from American Bankruptcy Institute Journal.
The Netherlands have been very much at the front of the queue, with the much-talked-about "Dutch scheme" finally entering into force on 1 January 2021. The timing might not be entirely coincidental with the U.K. "Brexit" from the European Union (EU). Many European countries hope to retain a bigger slice of the restructuring pie, whereby European companies have in the past decade or so frequently benefited from UK schemes of arrangement and to a lesser extent US Chapter 11. There is no doubt that the Dutch scheme looks attractive on paper, offering a state of the art restructuring toolkit. The question is of course to what extent and how successful it will be used in practice. Vincent Vroom and Kim de Bruijn write about how the early pioneers of the Dutch scheme have begun to shape its practical application both within the Netherlands and potentially internationally.
Read the full contribution from American Bankruptcy Institute Journal here.
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