Vol 19 (2022) - Issue 4

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Corporate Restructuring in the UK: the Old or the New?

Synopsis
This article analyses the UK's corporate rescue tools: the Company Voluntary Arrangement, the Scheme of Arrangement and the Restructuring Plan.
When it comes to options for the rescue of a distressed UK corporate, there had for a very long time been a growing mood of regret amongst practitioners that there was no comprehensive restructuring tool.
That all changed with the introduction of the Restructuring Plan ('RP').
But, as with all things new, the evitable question is: what happens to the old?
Will the UK's longstanding corporate rescue tools, the Company Voluntary Arrangement ('CVAs') and the Scheme of Arrangement ('Schemes'), slip quietly out the back door?
Or, more likely, do they remain very useful tools?
We consider here both the old and the new procedures of the UK corporate rescue toolkit and offer some brief thoughts on how and when they may be used over the coming years.