On 11 May, Dutch parliament will decide whether to fast track the introduction of the “Wet Homologatie Onderhands Akkoord’, known as ‘WHOA’ or the Dutch Scheme. The legislation would lead to a major improvement of financial restructuring possibilities in the Netherlands for domestic and international companies outside of a formal insolvency procedure.

If successful, the proposed scheme will be introduced by 1 July 2020 combining features from the U.K. Scheme of Arrangements and US Chapter 11 proceedings, while also providing a flexible procedure and limited court involvement.

Based on A&M’s experience, most companies in trouble are not only overleveraged but may also have other operational issues. These issues need to be addressed as part of a parallel operational restructuring process next to a WHOA procedure. For this reason, A&M sees the WHOA procedure as part of a full restructuring process.

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