Restructuring across borders: Toolkit for France

France operates one of Europe's most layered and long-established restructuring frameworks, ranging from entirely voluntary confidential processes to court-supervised collective procedures that can bind all creditors, including dissenters. Navigating this spectrum strategically requires a clear understanding of what each tool offers, when it becomes available, and how French courts have approached the most contested issues in recent proceedings. 

Christopher Poel, senior knowledge lawyer at A&O Shearman, is joined by Tristan Jambu-Merlin and Antoine Santoni to examine the full range of French restructuring procedures. The discussion covers the amicable and voluntary processes at one end of the spectrum, including conciliation and the mandat ad hoc, examining their use, confidentiality protections, and strategic advantages for debtors seeking to restructure without formal court involvement. It then turns to the collective procedures that carry binding effect over all creditors, including safeguard and accelerated safeguard, considering how these interact with the voluntary processes and the practical circumstances in which companies make the transition from one to the other. How are French courts currently approaching disputed restructuring plans? What are the most instructive recent examples of these procedures being deployed? And what should international creditors understand about how their rights are protected under each route? 

Restructuring advisers, distressed investors, and legal professionals working with French corporate debtors or creditors will leave this episode with a structured and current view of how the French system operates in practice. 

Restructuring Across Borders maps the restructuring and insolvency landscape across more than 50 jurisdictions worldwide, drawing on the expertise of A&O Shearman's global restructuring group and its partner law firms. Each episode examines the pre-insolvency tools, court-supervised procedures, and emerging developments in a specific jurisdiction, with a focus on the practical implications for debtors, creditors, and cross-border advisers. The series accompanies A&O Shearman's Restructuring Across Borders Toolkit, a free reference resource available at aoshearman.com.