This week we launched our Trowers FD Network and hosted our first live Q&A webinar, during which our panel of experts took a closer look at some of the trends and issues in restructuring and insolvency in the UK during the global pandemic.
Nick Harrisingh (Corporate) and Daniel Butler (Insolvency and Restructuring) were joined by guest panelist Finbarr O'Connell, head of restructuring and recovery at Smith & Williamson LLP.
As part of a wide-ranging discussion we considered how to judge when a business is facing an insolvency scenario as opposed to simply trading through challenging conditions, and what level of comfort directors have been able to take from the temporary suspension of the wrongful trading provisions.
We also considered how creditors might be best able to pursue their outstanding debts and manage cashflows given the moratoriums we are seeing on issuing winding up petitions and explored the new restructuring regimes proposed by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill currently being rushed through parliament.
Our 3 key takeaways were:
- "Cash is king" – businesses need to be looking 3 months out and protecting their cashflows
- Adjournments of hearings on winding up petitions mean that creditors need to be looking for other ways to enforce their debts and preserve cashflows – keep a close eye on credit control, make use of external resources to check your debtors' credit history and take action early
- The new restructuring regime, which some commentators have been championing for a number of years, appears to offer a genuine, valuable alternative to the current insolvency regimes we have in place
Watch the full webinar below.
