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This Land Is Your Land: Foreign Debtors in Chapter 11

By Mark van Ophem and Marc Bennett
August 15, 2003

In the past few years, foreign debtors such as the Singer Company N.V. (a Netherlands Antilles corporation), Global Telesystems Europe B.V. (a Dutch corporation), Cenargo Inter- national Plc. (a British corporation), Versatel Telecom International N.V., and United Pan-Europe Communications N.V. (both Dutch corporations) have filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the United States. Some of these debtors were large multinationals with assets in many jurisdictions, including the U.S., but other foreign debtors in Chapter 11 have had only minimal assets in the U.S. What special considerations arise when a non-U.S. debtor with only limited assets in the U.S. files a Chapter 11 petition?

The Lure of Chapter 11

From a non-U.S. perspective, a Chapter 11 case is generally perceived as debtor-friendly and often offers a foreign debtor important advantages over the insolvency proceedings of its local jurisdiction. For example, Chapter 11 is specifically designed to achieve a reorganization of the debtor, whereas foreign insolvency proceedings are often focused on the liquidation of the debtor for the benefit of the creditors. Likewise, the strategic use of a Chapter 11 case by a debtor to, among other things, ach- ieve a debt restructuring and to reject unwanted leases and contracts is perfectly acceptable in the U.S. In most foreign jurisdictions, however, filing for bankruptcy is more stigmatizing and usually considered only as a last resort.

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