Coordination but No Consolidation - Internal Draft Bill on Group Insolvencies in Germany

We have reviewed an internal draft of the German Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesjustizministerium) of a Bill to Facilitate the Handling of Group Insolvencies (Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Erleichterung der Bewältigung von Konzerninsolvenzen). For the first time in Germany, the Draft Bill would, if enacted as drafted, introduce special rules relating to the insolvency of group companies. The Draft Bill continues a recent series of legislative initiatives to modernize German insolvency law and preempts in part the European Commission’s draft proposals to amend the European Insolvency Regulation (EC Regulation No. 1346/2000) of December 2012.

Please find attached an alert memorandum summarizing the Draft Bill, and highlighting certain questions raised by it. Please feel free to distribute the attached materials within your institution as you see fit.

If you have any questions in regard to the issues addressed in the alert memorandum, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Kern (mkern@cgsh.com) or Laura Pfirrmann (lpfirrmann@cgsh.com) at the Frankfurt office of Cleary Gottlieb or any of our partners and counsel listed under “Germany”, “Lawyers in this Practice”, under the “Practices” section, “Regions”, of this website.