To our clients and friends

Welcome to the Q4 edition of the Norton Rose Fulbright International Restructuring Newswire.

We enter the last quarter of the year with the realization that restructuring activity in 2021 has been well below expectations. In the US and elsewhere, new commercial bankruptcy filings have been at record lows. The lower number of filings is a consequence of the continued strength of the capital markets that has made it easy to access financing as well as government relief efforts have helped fend off, at least temporarily, severe financial distress. Lenders have maintained a flexible and accommodating approach with their borrowers. Instead of accelerating debt and foreclosing, lenders are offering more lenient terms and extending maturities, to avoid becoming owners of their borrowers. How long this period of relative quietude will last is anybody’s guess. There is certainly enough noise in the markets to question the nascent financial recovery: accelerating inflation, disruption in the commercial real estate markets in China, gridlock in the US Congress over the budget, not to mention supply-chain woes. Financial markets, however, continue to see the bright side of nearly all developments.

While we all await an uptick in financial restructurings, please feel free to peruse this issue for an update in restructuring law changes in Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and the UK. And to top it off, we offer an article on some disconcerting proposed legislation in the US that, if enacted, may impede global reorganizations.

On the bright side, we can all look forward to attending the just announced in-person INSOL conference in London next June. Our very own Scott Atkins, president of INSOL, will preside over the event. See you there.

• To scheme, or not to scheme: Australia considers supercharging its scheme procedure

• Update: Italy’s new restructuring and insolvency law

• Recent activity points to the welcome revival of pre-packs in the Netherlands

• Enforceability of arbitration clauses challenged in Canadian receivership proceeding

• Fair’s fair . . . but is it, really? Regulating UK insolvency office-holders’ conduct

• Proposed legislation may trip-up international bankruptcy filings in the United States

All the best,

Howard Seife
Global Head
Bankruptcy, Financial Restructuring and Insolvency

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