StaRUG: Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring Framework for Businesses
1 January 2021.
StaRUG – The New German Restructuring Tool
The StaRUG is a pre-insolvency rescue procedure which allows a debtor to implement a restructuring plan outside formal insolvency proceedings.
General Features of StaRUG
- Rescue procedure in which a restructuring plan is put to a vote across separate classes of creditors.
- Available at an early stage outside of formal insolvency proceedings.
- Initiation requires the debtor’s notice to the court, combined with a restructuring concept and confirmation that the company is facing impending insolvency.
- Moratorium of maximum eight months possible.
- Dept-equity-swaps and other measures are possible in the plan.
High Degree of Flexibility
- Debtor may choose from a broad toolkit of individual instruments.
- Not all instruments require the court’s involvement.
- Debtor is free to choose who is included in the plan.
The restructuring process closes the gap between free restructuring and judicial insolvency proceedings. However, the method can only be used by companies that are threatened with insolvency, explain the Ecovis experts.
Changes to the Insolvency Law
- Liability regimes for wrongful trading, which were scattered throughout corporate law, are harmonised in one central insolvency law provision (Par. 15b InsO).
- Debtors who wish to use insolvency in self-administration (“Insolvenz in Eigenverwaltung”) need to show to the satisfaction of the court that they have provided detailed debtor in possession planning with a six-month planning horizon.
- The mandatory insolvency case of over-indebtedness was reduced to a twelve-month (instead of 24 month) forward-looking going-concern prognosis.
For further information please contact:
Michael Busching, Partner, Lawyer, ECOVIS Insolvenz und Sanierungs AG, Hamburg, Germany
Email: michael.busching@ecovis.com
Nils Krause, Partner, Lawyer, ECOVIS Insolvenz und Sanierungs AG, Hamburg, Germany
Email: nils.krause@ecovis.com
Ecovis is a leading global consulting firm with its origins in Continental Europe. It has almost 8,500 people operating in nearly 80 countries. Its consulting focus and core competencies lie in the areas of tax consultation, accounting, auditing and legal advice.
The particular strength of Ecovis is the combination of personal advice at a local level with the general expertise of an international and interdisciplinary network of professionals. Every Ecovis office can rely on qualified specialists in the back offices as well as on the specific industrial or national know-how of all the Ecovis experts worldwide. This diversified expertise provides clients with effective support, especially in the fields of international transactions and investments – from preparation in the client’s home country to support in the target country.
In its consulting work Ecovis concentrates mainly on mid-sized firms. Both nationally and internationally, its one-stop-shop concept ensures all-round support in legal, fiscal, managerial and administrative issues.
The name Ecovis, a combination of the terms economy and vision, expresses both its international character and its focus on the future and growth.
ECOVIS AG Steuerberatungsgesellschaft
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 10
10587 Berlin
Telefon: +49 89 5898-266
Telefax: +49 (30) 310008556
http://www.ecovis.com
ECOVIS AG Steuerberatungsgesellschaft*
Telefon: +49 (89) 5898-266
E-Mail: gudrun.bergdolt@ecovis.com
