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Material from the seminar “Sale of Debtor as a Legal Entity” – Belgrade, 10 and 11 December 2014

The two-day seminar, which brought together both a large number of bankruptcy administrators and judges of commercial courts in the Republic of Serbia, highlighted the provision of the Law stipulating that after the sale of the debtor as a legal entity and the suspension of the bankruptcy proceedings, the bankruptcy proceedings should be continued as regards the bankruptcy estate, which as prescribed by the law, consisted only of the cash assets obtained from the sale of the debtor as a legal entity and would be used for settling creditors’ claims, which would later create different interpretations in practice in terms of the extent of its active or passive capacity.

Ivana Matić, acting director of the Bankruptcy Supervision Agency said that a more favourable requirement for settling creditors’ claims was met with the institute of sale of the debtor as a legal entity, but the proceedings should be continued against the bankruptcy estate represented by the bankruptcy administrator for the purpose of settling creditors’ claims.

During the seminar, a lawyer and bankruptcy administrator from Germany, Frank Zimmerman, PhD, shared with the seminar attendees his experience from Germany related to the sale of the debtor as a legal entity.

Lawyer Mihajlo Srdić and Lawyer Aleksandar Majkić, shared their experience from law practice regarding legal aspects of the sale of the debtor as a legal entity in the bankruptcy proceedings and highlighted legal consequences of the sale of the debtor as a legal entity, explaining what was regarded as bankruptcy estate, as well as that upon completion of sale, the bankruptcy estate was registered within the bankruptcy estate registry kept by the Serbian Business Registers Agency, which bankruptcy estate was represented by the administrative receiver.

During his lecture on the issues identified in practice related to the application of the institute of sale of the debtor as a legal entity, Predrag Stojković, bankruptcy administrator, once again drew the attendees’ attention to the fact that the reason for adopting such a decision was more favourable settlement of creditors’ claims. He also pointed out that regardless of the reason for adopting the decision on such sale, the National Standard No. 5 must be abided by and that the value assessment must show that this method of sale was more favourable and that the estimated value of the LEGAL ENTITY was higher than the estimated value of its individual parts.”

http://alsu.gov.rs/la/materijal-sa-seminara-prodaja-stecajnog-duznika-kao-pravnog-lica-beograd-2014