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For over a century, U.K. company law has enabled a company to propose, to its creditors or shareholders, a compromise or arrangement of their rights which, if approved by the requisite majority and then by the court, is binding on all of the relevant creditors or shareholders. This process—a scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006—has been frequently used by companies (including those non-U.K. companies that fall within the winding up jurisdiction of the English courts, to whom the court’s scheme jurisdiction extends) to implement a wide variety of different forms of financial restructuring, despite it not being a formal insolvency proceeding. In June 2020, the U.K. Government introduced a new form of restructuring plan under a new Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006, that would be focused on the needs of companies facing financial difficulties. In this briefing, we examine how the new restructuring plan differs from a scheme of arrangement and how it is likely to be used going forward.
