As the U.S. economy continues to limp along, six years after the official end of the Great Recession, it has become painfully clear that the world economy is highly interdependent. The ability of any one country to improve its own lot is limited by the conditions in other countries and the actions (or lack of actions) being taken in those countries. This is true not only of regulators and central bank officials, but of companies and industries as well: The U.S. producers of oil and gas are affected by the decisions made by competitors in the Middle East, and by the demand for energy in Asia and South America.
When economies and industries cross international borders, insolvencies and restructurings do, too. The International Committee has sought to provide this important cross-border perspective through our panels and newsletters this year.
At the 2015 Annual Spring Meeting, we partnered with the Financial Advisors and Investment Banking Committee to present a panel on issues associated with cross-border financing transactions. The panelists, consisting of Neil Lupton, Soneet R. Kapila, Van C. Durrer II and Gilberto Deon Corrêa Jr., explored some of the structures used in arranging financing in different countries (such as China, Cayman and others), as well as the challenges in collecting on that financing and enforcing remedies.
At the 2015 Winter Leadership Conference, we partnered with the Secured Credit Committee. Panelists Rebecca A. Roof, E. Patrick Shea, Fredric Sosnick and Prof. Jay L. Westbrook discussed the challenges and opportunities with making secured loans in several non-U.S. jurisdictions, as well as the issues that lenders face when attempting to foreclose on their collateral and defend their rights in insolvency proceedings.
Our committee’s newsletter continued its strong tradition of updating our readers on changes in the insolvency laws of different countries, as well as discussing recent U.S. cases with cross-border implications. As always, we welcome articles and ideas for the newsletter; if you’ve encountered an issue that has an international aspect to it, take a few minutes to turn your brief or research memo into a short article, and get it published in the International Committee’s newsletter!
We look forward to seeing you at ASM 2016 in Washington, D.C.