Hawkamah explores legal, financial and policy impact of insolvency and restructuring in region at 2nd Judicial and financial colloquium

The participants of the colloquium examined the legal, financial and policy dimensions of insolvency and restructuring through case studies on restructuring and panel discussions on insolvency law reforms.

H.E Fahad Saeed Al Raqbani, Director General of ADCED delivered the keynote address at the event.

The event is being organized under the umbrella of the Forum for Insolvency Reforms in MENA (the FIRM), the founding members of which are Hawkamah, the World Bank, INSOL International and the OECD.

Other key speakers include Nick Nadal, Head of Hawkamah & Mudara IOD, Gordon Stewart, President INSOL International, Pierre Kanaan, Senior Director Central Bank of Lebanon and Mahesh Uttamchandani, Global Product Leader, Investment Climate The World Bank Group.

H.E Fahad Saeed Al Raqbani, said, "I am pleased to participate in this Judicial and Financial Colloquium organized by Hawkamah as this event is being held at a time when the legislation relating to the financial restructuring in the UAE has been completed and the UAE is in the process of issuing a new Bankruptcy Law. This colloquium brings together regional and global experts on insolvency and restructuring enabling the participants to discuss and debate the regions insolvency and restructuring frameworks and benchmark and compare them against international experiences. Likewise, our region has some successful business reorganization cases which I am sure the international insolvency and restructuring experts will find interesting to hear about and will have something to take away from hearing these unique stories."

Mr. Nick Nadal, Head of Hawkamah and Mudara IOD added, "Modernization of the restructuring and governance frameworks have assumed even greater importance in our region as several companies are going through or are exploring going through a restructuring process as a result of the changing economic landscape. The reform of insolvency and restructuring regimes require us to take a holistic view and explore the impact of the framework in other related laws such as Labour laws, Company Law, Mergers, Acquisitions and Takeover Laws."

Beyond the institutional reform challenges, there have been countries in the region that have gone through the process such as the United Arab Emirates and can share their experience within the regional context. The UAE has experienced successful restructuring of troubled UAE companies and successful reorganization of family businesses.

The mix of regional and international speakers and audience at this two day colloquium provides an excellent opportunity to share regional experiences and hear international perspectives on internationally accepted yet practical Insolvency and restructuring framework for the countries of the region."

He concluded, "Corporate restructuring is intrinsically linked to corporate governance. Reorganizations involve a change in governance structures of an organization as well and hence a good corporate governance framework needs to be complemented by an effective, efficient insolvency and restructuring framework with well-established debtor and creditor rights regimes."