Vol 2 (2005) - Issue 1

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A Note to our Readership

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the first issue in the second year of International Corporate Rescue.
International cross-border cases have kept many a practitioner awake at night in the last year. The latest court approval in respect of the restructuring of British Energy, the Yukos and Multicanal scenarios working their way through the US Courts (see further Selinda Melnik’s excellent article in the US Corner of this issue), and the on-going TXU and Parmalat restructurings represent some of the higher profile cases, but the issues they represent are found in virtually every case the corporate recovery and insolvency professional encounters these days regardless of balance sheet worth, net realisable value or estimated size of the ‘black hole’. Whilst size is still a major influencing factor it is not the one that has really tested the professional in the last few years. It is the view of many an insolvency/restructuring professional that one of the most important factors affecting their day-to-day business has been getting to grips with the key international cross-border aspects of a case and doing so quickly and decisively. It seems that the European cases such as Daisytek, Eurofoods, and Ci4net.com show that this area is not only contentious but also developing on a case-by-case basis.
The location of the Centre of Main Interest (‘COMI’), cooperation and trust between courts (for example, contrast approaches of the courts and cooperation in the Cenargo case and the Eurofood matter, the latter of which is due to be heard in the European Court of Justice on appeal from the Irish Supreme Court and the Court in Parma), and the supposed rationalization of the jurisdiction under section 304 of the US Bankruptcy Code on a case-by-case basis are factors that have begun shaping the everyday approach to cases in Europe and the US, in particular. These changes take place very quickly and are complex. In turn, this makes an up-to-date and fully comprehensive guide through the myriad of legal and financial complexities an absolute necessity to operate in today’s market rather than a dispensible luxury. This is the main objective of International Corporate Rescue. Simply put, it is to provide practitioner value on a range of corporate rescue and insolvency issues covering a multitude of jurisdictions. It aims to do this by understanding and commenting on the factors affecting global economic change and the ramifications of change. I have sought to do this in three main ways, namely:

1. By working with an Editorial Board drawn from academia, the legal and accountancy professions and from banking and commerce.

2. By structuring the journal so that it includes a guest editorial, a range of articles covering aspects of corporate recovery and insolvency law and practice from across the globe, a US Corner, an Economists’ Outlook section, as well as a Case Review Section.

3. By ensuring that articles have been sourced from as many different contributors as possible in order to get a cross-section of comment and opinion.

At this point I would like to thank an excellent Editorial Board for their help and support, especially in the first year of the journal, the Section Editors, Phil Johnstone of Lancaster Publishing Services for his invaluable work in setting and arranging the copy, and, above all, Sasha Radoja and Sian O’Neill from Kluwer Law International, without whom this publication would not have been possible.
I would also like to thank contributors (75 different authors in total in the first year) who supplied such excellent and diverse copy and also our subscribers whom I hope have found International Corporate Rescue worthy of the subject matter which affects all of our daily lives.
Finally, feedback and comments are always very welcome, and members of the Editorial Board and I would be interested to hear of any matters you might like to see featured in future editions.