The firm advises the directors and shareholders of companies facing cash-flow pressure, debt that has become excessive or the loss of a key customer. It acts from the first warning signs, at the prevention stage, and through to the agreement with the creditors.
Mandat ad hoc and conciliation (in French), the two French confidential prevention procedures, allow bank, tax and social security debt to be renegotiated under the protection of the court and in confidence.
The firm prepares the file, applies to the president of the court, negotiates with the creditors alongside the court-appointed mandataire or conciliateur, and drafts the settlement agreement.
Timing is decisive: conciliation is open to companies that have not been in cessation des paiements, the inability to meet due liabilities out of available assets, for more than forty-five days. Waiting closes doors.
Rescheduling, partial write-off with a return-to-better-fortune clause, conversion of debt into equity, refinancing by a new entrant: the firm structures and documents the negotiated solutions, together with its banking finance practice.
The four levers of debt restructuring and their legal framework (in French).
As soon as the company foresees that it will be unable to meet its liabilities in the coming months, and in any event before it has been in cessation des paiements for more than forty-five days. Conciliation is confidential, lasts four months and may be extended by one month, and allows the debt to be negotiated with the creditors under the authority of a conciliateur appointed by the president of the court.
Yes. Mandat ad hoc and conciliation are confidential procedures: no publication, no entry on the register, no notice to customers or suppliers. The director remains in charge of the company.
A mandataire or a conciliateur appointed by the president of the court conducts the negotiation with the creditors. Their task, defined in article L. 611-7 of the French Commercial Code, is to promote the conclusion of an agreement between the debtor and its principal creditors. The agreement reached may remain purely contractual, be recorded by the president, or be approved by the court, each degree affording greater legal certainty in exchange for wider publicity.
Four levers, most often combined. Rescheduling spreads the instalments over a longer period and lightens the annual burden. A partial write-off of the claim, usually coupled with a return-to-better-fortune clause, cancels part of the liabilities. Conversion of debt into equity turns a creditor into a shareholder, which means accepting dilution. New money, lastly, funds the restart.
What is negotiated is not only the amount, but the timetable, the security granted in return, the position of the director's personal guarantees and the circumstances in which the agreement lapses. A rescheduling obtained without dealing with the guarantees leaves the director personally exposed.
The points directors bring to us most often, treated in depth, with sources.