Quick Check: Which is the right way?

Together, in a brief analysis, we will examine if your company can be restructured using the self-administration or protective shield procedure. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages with you, recommend courses of action and take existing approaches for restructuring into account.

Within the scope of a quick check, we will demonstrate the positive effects of judicial proceedings to you. Crucial aspects to bear in mind here are insolvency payments, tax savings, terminating contracts and reducing personnel costs. Additional matters to bear in mind are the impacts on customers, suppliers, financial backers, employees and other stakeholders.

Self-administration: Restructuring independently

A company can be re-established in terms of finance and performance within six to nine months in self-administration proceedings (Section 270ff of the German Insolvency Code (InsO)). A court-appointed custodian ensures that the proceedings are followed in the proper manner on behalf of the creditors, and in larger proceedings there is a creditors’ committee of inspection, while the company’s management is still capable of acting.

An interdisciplinary team at AndresPartner prepares the proceedings in conjunction with you and also undertakes the corporate responsibility as CRO or fully authorized representative. We have the necessary experience garnered from many successful restructurings to prepare your self-administration down to the last detail and to carry it out efficiently.

Advantages of self-administration

• Personnel cost savings with three months’ insolvency payments
• Termination of leasing and financing contracts with immediate effect
• Termination of property rental contracts giving three months’ notice
• Termination of employee contracts with a maximum of three months’ notice
• Severance scheme with a maximum of 2.5 gross months’ remuneration

Protective shield: Only if insolvency threatens

Protective shield proceedings (Section 270d of the German Insolvency Code (InsO)) differentiate from self-administration in that the company must not yet be insolvent or over-indebted, but merely that insolvency is imminent.

The company can choose its own court-appointed custodian as usually it is not appointed by the creditors’ committee or the insolvency court. The advantages of this type of proceedings are identical to those of self-administration.

Restructuring by means of StaRUG

The German Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act (Gesetz über den Stabilisierungs- und Restrukturierungsrahmen, StaRUG) offers companies tools to help them navigate a crisis more effectively – without having to undergo insolvency proceedings. StaRUG provides companies with better means to negotiate settlements with creditors. Individual creditors can be overruled in such cases and thereby “forced” into a settlement. Settlements can be limited to specific groups of creditors.

The proceedings do not involve a media presence and take place discreetly and quietly between the parties to eliminate an impending insolvency in the long term. A projected period of 24 months applies to impending insolvency. It is crucial to prepare and manage the proceedings professionally.

Out-of-court restructuring: Successful negotiation

The primary goal of out-of-court restructuring is to avoid insolvency. Financial backers, works’ councils, unions and creditors often support out-of-court restructuring when it is made clear that the company is unable to survive any other way.

Working with you, we draw up a long-term restructuring plan and develop a strategy to negotiate with your creditors. Reaching a quick out-of-court settlement is at the heart of our interaction.