Gide Loyrette Nouel advises its clients on all aspects of administration proceedings and compulsory liquidations.

The Bankruptcy - Insolvency Department has acquired extensive experience in assisting corporate groups to manage insolvency proceedings involving one or more of their subsidiaries. It advised Swissair when AOM Air Liberté was placed in administration, the Italian company Bormioli Rocco in relation to the insolvency of Duralex and the holding company of Metaleurop when Metaleurop Nord was placed in compulsory liquidation.

Gide Loyrette Nouel regularly acts for candidates for the takeover of companies in administration: it advised Carrefour in its takeover of the Montlaur group, the purchasers, headed by Sofiproteol, in the takeover of the Bourgoin group and the SEB group in its takeover of Moulinex. The Department also assists the creditors of, or parties under contract with, companies in safeguard, administration or compulsory liquidation (especially banks) in handling legal issues specific to their situations.

Gide Loyrette Nouel also acts for court-appointed insolvency practitioners in the context of safeguard, administration and compulsory liquidation. Recently, the Firm has for instance advised the receivers in connection with the safeguard proceedings of the Eurotunnel group and the Smoby group.

Gide Loyrette Nouel's practice extends to international bankruptcy proceedings: the Firm advised a Danish court-appointed receiver in a case which led to the Kléber judgement, handed down by the French Supreme Court on 25 February 1986, which made it possible to halt individual creditors' claims, acknowledging the effects of a foreign insolvency ruling even before its official recognition and enforcement in France.

Gide Loyrette Nouel also applied, in France, for the recognition and enforcement of the Maxwell insolvency ruling by the British courts. More recently, the Firm advised a creditor concerning the specific application of a European Regulation on insolvency procedures by the Companies Court in Leeds (Great Britain) which held the French subsidiary of a British company to be insolvent on the grounds that its assets were fictitious and intermingled with those of its parent company.


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Olivier Puech