Pre-pack bankruptcy
Is your business going bankrupt? You may be able to make a relaunch. With a pre-pack deal, you check whether a relaunch after bankruptcy is possible. You do this before you are officially bankrupt.
What is a pre-pack?
In a pre-pack (short for pre-packaged), before your business goes bankrupt, you investigate whether a restart is possible. You do this with a 'silent administrator'. A prepack is also called a flash bankruptcy.
Advantages of a pre-pack
Your business keeps going. If the judge then declares bankruptcy, your business can quickly restart. Or be sold. This keeps the damage to your business as small as possible. Suppliers can continue to deliver after a bankruptcy. And your staff can usually continue to work.
How does a pre-pack work?
- Your company will definitely go bankrupt.
- You ask the court to appoint a curator for your bankruptcy.
- This ‘silent administrator’ investigates whether you can make a restart after bankruptcy.
- It is not made public that there is a ‘silent administrator’. Suppliers and customers do not know about the pre-pack deal.
- In the meantime, you can continue to do business and negotiate the sale of (parts of) your company.
- Does the court declare you bankrupt? The ‘silent administrator’ becomes the curator. And can then sell your company, or parts of it. Or you make a new start.
Lack of clarity about the pre-pack
Courts deal with pre-pack differently. In addition, it is not clear whether pre-pack is an actual bankruptcy. Or a business transfer. In a transfer, all employees must be are taken over. And that can be unfavourable for a restart. As a result, pre-pack is not widely used at the moment.
Amendments to the Bankruptcy Act
The pre-pack is part of the amendments to the Bankruptcy Act (Faillissementswet, in Dutch). The amendments are likely to take effect at the end of 2027.