By Himani Singh (New York University School of Law)
Corporate rescue is used as a pre-cursor to bankruptcy filing to provide the creditor classes of a stressed debtor with necessary means to formulate a plan of reorganization to recover their dues and make the business of the debtor sustainable again. A prepackaged bankruptcy commonly referred to as “Pre-packs”, is a form of corporate rescue which may involve any element or combination of restructuring methods to be undertaken in respect of a debtor.
Pre-packaged bankruptcy finds its roots in United States and United Kingdom; but is yet to be formally integrated in the Indian bankruptcy regime. While the latest Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 has been helpful in improving the stressed asset statistics, the statute is still undergoing teething troubles and has scope for bringing in many improvements such as introducing Pre-packs. The concept of Pre-packs however is niche in India and its viability has been extensively debated. There have been apprehensions that the Indian market is not developed enough to allow out of court of restructuring, but some of the recent decisions by the National Company Law Tribunals have indicated a different trend.
In this backdrop, this term paper discusses the basic features of Indian insolvency structure and how Pre-packs will fare in the market given the current regulatory regime. The paper analyses the corporate insolvency resolution process in India, highlights specific challenges to introduction of Pre-packs and presents a holistic overview of the benefits as well as disadvantages that Pre-packs would bring along with them.
The full article is available here.