Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency

In CDH’s insolvency division, we are mindful of the complexities of the business environment in which our clients operate. We understand the need to balance the requirement for adequate security with the pragmatic realities around commercial transactions.

The business rescue process introduced in the new Companies Act, No 71 of 2008 allows some breathing space to companies facing financial distress. The new procedures allow a business rescue practitioner to step in and keep the company operating, either to return the company to profitable ways or to ensure a better return for creditors than they would receive in the case of liquidation.

Our focus is on guiding our clients to make the right decisions at the right time. We can help you proactively manage the process, decrease legal risk and financial exposure and explore the available options.

Our services include:

  • Managing financial corporate overexposure and debt restructuring.
  • Obtaining adequate and enforceable security.
  • Liquidation proceedings and sequestration.
  • Compromises.
  • Business rescue.
  • The administration of insolvent estates.
  • Cross-border insolvency.
  • Recovery action.
  • Impeachable transactions.
  • Directors' personal liability.
  • Forensic investigations.
  • Preservation orders.
  • Insolvency inquiries.
  • Creditors' meetings and proof of claims.
  • Training seminars on business rescue proceedings in the new Companies Act.
  • Perfection of Notarial Bonds.

Services

The business rescue process introduced in the new Companies Act, No 71 of 2008 allows some breathing space to companies facing financial distress. The new procedures allow a business rescue practitioner to step in and keep the company operating, either to return the company to profitable ways or to ensure a better return for creditors than they would receive in the case of liquidation.

Our focus is on guiding our clients to make the right decisions at the right time. We can help you proactively manage the process, decrease legal risk and financial exposure and explore the available options.

Our services include:

  • Managing financial corporate overexposure and debt restructuring.
  • Obtaining adequate and enforceable security.
  • Liquidation proceedings and sequestration.
  • Compromises.
  • Business rescue.
  • The administration of insolvent estates.
  • Cross-border insolvency.
  • Recovery action.
  • Impeachable transactions.
  • Directors' personal liability.
  • Forensic investigations.
  • Preservation orders.
  • Insolvency inquiries.
  • Creditors' meetings and proof of claims.
  • Training seminars on business rescue proceedings in the new Companies Act.
  • Perfection of Notarial Bonds.

Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers

Our Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency team provides strategy advice to boards of directors where the company is financially distressed, to ensure that the directors do not fall foul of their obligations in terms of the Company’s Act.

Our Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers
SECTOR HEAD

Our Work

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Shadow Careers

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr is representing Shadow Careers, the South Africa-based innovative impact sourcing initiative in response to the high youth unemployment.  Our South Africa-based restructuring & insolvency team is advising Shadow Careers and Shadow Academy Global NPC on a liquidation application which was brought on an urgent basis.  The first applicant, Edwin Jacques Pietersen, was a director of Shadow Careers and still is a director of Shadow Academy.  The second applicant, Greenchild Project, was a service provider for Shadow Careers.

Our Work

Shadow Careers

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr is representing Shadow Careers, the South Africa-based innovative impact sourcing initiative in response to the high youth unemployment.  Our South Africa-based restructuring & insolvency team is advising Shadow Careers and Shadow Academy Global NPC on a liquidation application which was brought on an urgent basis.  The first applicant, Edwin Jacques Pietersen, was a director of Shadow Careers and still is a director of Shadow Academy.  The second applicant, Greenchild Project, was a service provider for Shadow Careers.

Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency News

More news

Business rescue with an ulterior purpose

A financially distressed company facing a liquidation application may be tempted to try and avoid or delay the inevitable by launching a business rescue application in order to suspend the liquidation process. However, if there is no merit in such an application, it will inevitably be found by the courts to be an abuse of process and the stratagem will thus be doomed to failure. The Supreme Court of Appeal in the case of PFC Properties (Pty) Ltd v Commissioner for the South African Revenue Services and Others (543/21; 409/22) ZASCA 111; (1) SA 400 (SCA) (21 July 2023) adjudicated precisely thisscenario.  

The extent of business rescue practitioners’ powers to suspend a company’s contractual obligations

Chapter 6 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (Companies Act) confers various powers on business rescue practitioners (BRPs) once they have assumed their responsibilities to restructure the affairs of a company that has been placed under business rescue. This is achieved through the temporary supervision of the company, and the management of its affairs, business and property, by the BRP; a temporary moratorium on the rights of claimants against the company or in respect of property belonging to the company or lawfully in the possession of the company; and the development and implementation, if approved, of a business rescue plan to rescue the company by restructuring its affairs, amongst other things.

The interplay between set-off and post-liquidation debt

Can a creditor that has realised its security in terms of section 83(3) of the Insolvency Act, 1936 claim set-off of a post-liquidation debt owed to it by an insolvent estate or company in liquidation against the amount of the proceeds of the realisation of the secured property that it is obliged to pay to the liquidator in terms of section 83(10) of the Insolvency Act? The High Court indicated that the answer is “ No ” and, inter alia , ordered the creditor to pay the amount of the net proceeds of the realised security to the joint liquidators. The interplay between set-off and post-liquidation debt was therefore considered by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Emontic Investments (Pty) Ltd v Bothomley NO and Others (1123/2022) ZASCA 1 (9 January 2024).

Market recognition

  • Chambers Global 2018 - 2024 ranked us in Band 2 for restructuring/insolvency.

 

Market recognition

  • Chambers Global 2018 - 2024 ranked us in Band 2 for restructuring/insolvency.

 

Happy Clients

Chambers Global 2023

"The team were extremely responsive and commercially minded. Their strengths include effective teamwork and mindfulness of costs. They worked under very tight timelines and never once let me down."

Chambers Global 2023

The strength of the CDH team definitely lies in their sound knowledge and understanding of the law," explained one source, also praising the group's "strategic approach."

Chambers Global 2022