Insolvency and Reconstruction

  1. Home
  2. Our Expertise
  3. Banking and Finance
  4. Insolvency and Reconstruction

  • With the largest combined Dispute Resolution and Banking and Finance team in the country, our Corporate Recovery and Insolvency Group has naturally been involved in most of the significant restructurings, workouts and insolvencies that have taken place in Israel. We have acted on Israel's largest disposal approved by way of a court-sanctioned creditor arrangement, we are acting for one of the major secured creditors in the corporate rehabilitation process of IDB (Israel's largest rehabilitation/Chapter 11 proceedings), we have acted as receiver on Israel's largest (in value) receivership and we regularly act for a large number of banks on major insolvency proceedings.

     

    We offer an integrated, multidisciplinary team that draws on our firm’s internationally-recognised banking and finance, dispute resolution, regulatory, insurance, derivatives, employment, real estate and tax lawyers. Our team provides focused advice on all aspects of corporate rescues, rehabilitation proceedings, receiverships, court-sanctioned creditor arrangements, liquidations, debt recovery strategies and enforcement of security interests, including complex multi-jurisdictional restructurings and insolvencies. 

     

    Our clients include banks, financial institutions, bond holders, companies, creditors, officers and individuals on everything from creditor claims and the realisation of security interests to the recovery or disposal of assets of insolvent companies.  Members of the group frequently act as trustees, receivers or liquidators in major insolvencies.

     

    Our expertise includes:

     

    • Reassessing strategies and advising on the implications of bankruptcy and other loan restructuring proceedings
    • Assisting distressed companies in the restructuring of loan facilities and bonds and, in particular, advising on the re-negotiation of existing loan and credit facilities
    • Advising on cross-border insolvencies affecting this jurisdiction
    • Workouts
    • Debt recovery and enforcement
    • Reorganisations within the context of Israel's equivalent of the US Bankruptcy Chapter 11 procedure
    • Enforcement and realisation of security interests
    • Representing a syndicate of lenders, comprising the seven largest banks in Israel, on the largest receivership in Israel's history, relating to a debt of NIS 3 billion (US$ 750 million) owed to the lenders by Zeevi Management and Financing Ltd..  One of the partners in the firm was appointed by the court as the receiver of the debtor's main asset, 20% of the issued shares of Bezeq.  The receiver recovered NIS 4.5 billion (approximately US$ 1.2 billion) and from these proceeds paid off the debtor's entire debt to the lenders while still leaving a substantial surplus for the debtor post-receivership
    • Representing Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot in several highly-complex cases brought against IDB Development Corp., including a request to the courts for the enforced settlement of a NIS 6 billion debt (approximately US$ 1.5 billion) owed to banks and bondholders, (of which the Bank was one of the major creditors)
    • Representing local and foreign creditors on numerous debt reschedulings, including debt reschedulings of IDB, Maariv, Israel Petrochemicals Enterprises Ltd. and BSG Resources
    • Representing Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. in its defence of a multi-million dollar claim for damages filed by clients of the bank relating to investments in securities of the Lehman Brothers investment bank following the collapse of the bank in 2008.  The District Court approved our firm's application for in limine dismissal of the claim on the ground of a foreign jurisdiction clause between the parties directing the plaintiff to file the claim in Switzerland.  The firm also acted for the Bank in Supreme Court proceedings in which the judgment of the District Court was upheld
    • Representing Expert Financial Products Ltd. and its officers in a class action for compensation in excess of US$ 100 million which was brought in connection with the issue of a promissory note secured by funds deposited with a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers.  The plaintiffs claimed that material information as to the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers had been withheld from them
    • Representing Bank Hapoalim in a claim against a group of companies and private individuals valued at in excess of NIS 1 billion (approximately US$ 250 million), including appointment as a receiver over certain high-value real estate, and achieving settlement of the claim
    • Representing Bank Hapoalim in a large number of proceedings for the recovery of loans in excess of NIS 1 billion (approximately US$ 250 million) owed by the Kachtan Group.  We also represented the Bank in the negotiation and finalisation of a settlement agreement with regard to these proceedings
    • Representation of Mizrahi Bank in several highly-complex cases, including a request to the courts for the enforced settlement of a nearly NIS 6 billion debt (approximately US$ 1.5 million) owed by a well-known Israeli development company to banks and bondholders

Practice Contacts