Insolvency and Restructuring
Entrepreneurial success or failure does not always result from the actions of the entrepreneur himself, but often from a variety of factors that can also be beyond his control. Crisis situations are therefore not necessarily due to entrepreneurial failure. However, it is crucial that crisis situations are quickly identified and managed sustainably. Corporate crises require rapid and often painful restructuring, both economically and legally. The aim is to discover new perspectives and opportunities.
Schindhelm advises you on all crisis and insolvency-related issues of your company and develops viable and sustainable restructuring strategies with you. In addition, we will show you safe ways and advise you on the best possible avoidance of liability.
In addition, Schindhelm advises you as a creditor on how you should behave if your contractual partner (e.g. supplier or customer) is in financial difficulties, so that you do not experience any unpleasant surprises in the event that insolvency proceedings are opened over the assets of your contractual partner.
Our expertise in insolvency law proceedings and restructuring
Schindhelm has many years of experience and expertise in managing and dealing with corporate crises in his role as an advisor to affected companies, insolvency administrators and advisors to creditors. In our services, we focus on the following focal points.
A crisis and the threat of insolvency place high demands on managing directors, board members and supervisory boards as well as shareholders. The primary goal here is to ensure the long-term existence of the company. We accompany all phases of the restructuring from a legal point of view and work hand in hand with other consultants involved, such as auditors as well as tax and management consultants. We support you in the following steps:
- Legal analysis of the company's status quo in crisis
- Legal support in the preparation of restructuring concepts and expert opinions
- Development of restructuring strategies, legal implementation of restructuring measures in restructuring proceedings
- Legal support and support in the area of restructuring financing (incl. acquisition financing)
- Legal support in the preparation of going concern forecasts
- Advice on equity replacement and the avoidance of prohibited repayment of contributions
- Creation of rescue companies, with which a newly founded company takes over assets and business areas from the company in crisis. This may allow business operations to continue and jobs to be secured.
- Preparation of the initiation and structuring of a Insolvency proceedings or restructuring proceedings, elaboration of the of corresponding applications (e.g. an insolvency application) and ongoing legal support and representation as a debtor
- Advice on cross-border insolvencies
- Cross Border Mergers & Acquisition Advisory (M&A Advisory)
Especially in situations close to insolvency, the personal liability risk increases. Especially in the case of the failure of companies, the question arises as to whether entrepreneurial decisions were made in compliance with the legal standard of care.
It is important to make the best possible use of the existing legal options to achieve the restructuring goal. This can be done through restructuring, reorganization and the associated haircut or through the sale of the company or parts of the company. In particular, we provide the following services:
- Advising the management and other bodies on the performance of the special tasks and duties that affect them in the crisis
- Advising managing directors, board members and supervisory boards as well as shareholders on how to avoid liability risks (under civil law, criminal law, social security and tax law).
- Legal support in the examination of insolvency and/or over-indebtedness
Insolvency affects not only the company itself, but also its contractual partners. Contractual partners of the debtor, in particular those who are dependent on the debtor's services (e.g. because they have committed themselves to provide services to third parties, for the fulfilment of which the debtor's advance payment is essential), can experience considerable disadvantages. Therefore, a continuation or the best possible realisation of the company is also in the interest of the creditors.
At best, the occurrence of crises at the contractual partner is already contractually taken into account when a business relationship is established. We advise you on the drafting of contracts with regard to securing your receivables, deliveries and other claims. Of course, we also support you in negotiations or disputes with insolvency administrators in order to make the economic result as optimal as possible for you as a creditor. Our services include, in particular:
For competitors and investors, the opportunity to take over opens up when a company is in a crisis situation. Competitors can expand market share or reposition themselves strategically, while investors see the potential to restructure the company and generate long-term profits.
In the case of an acquisition out of insolvency, the risk of succession liability is usually low to impossible. An acquisition outside of insolvency proceedings, on the other hand, requires special care and can be carried out as part of a merger & acquisition (M&A) process. We support you in particular with regard to the following topics:
- M&A transactions in crisis situations and from insolvency (restructuring by transfer)
- Acquisition of companies in crisis and out of insolvency
- Refinancing.
We regularly advise and represent insolvency administrators in the enforcement of their claims. On the one hand, this concerns the enforcement of avoidance claims. We also enforce liability claims against managing directors and shareholders. Through close cooperation with colleagues from tax consulting, we can also support the evaluation and continuation of the debtor company's accounting.
We are also happy to support insolvency administrators (also through our international partner offices) in the search for investors in the event that they want to sell companies or parts of companies (asset or share deal).
References and success stories
We support our clients with expertise and commitment in insolvency law and restructuring. Below are some of our references and recent success stories.
Schindhelm regularly represents insolvency administrators
Schindhelm has been representing the interests of insolvency administrators for several years. In doing so, we take over the complete investigation and enforcement (in and out of court) of insolvency-specific special assets. This concerns, on the one hand, the enforcement of all insolvency avoidance claims and, on the other hand, the enforcement of all claims against the former management and the shareholders of the insolvency debtor.
Schindhelm advises an Italian company on the protection of its interests in the context of the insolvency of a German client
In this matter, we are advising an Italian company in the automotive supplier sector on the enforcement of its interests in the context of (provisional insolvency proceedings) of a German client.
