Leiden Insolvency Thesis receives Bronze Prize From International Insolvency Institute
On 11 June 2023, the International Insolvency Institute (III) announced its 2023 prizes in International Insolvency Studies during its 23rd Annual Conference in Amsterdam. Raghav Mittal from Leiden University was honoured to be a recipient of the Bronze Medal for his paper on Equity retention in SME restructuring, which he wrote during his studies at Leiden University.
The III is a non-profit, limited-membership organization dedicated to advancing and promoting insolvency as a respected discipline in the international field. Annually, the III Prize is awarded for original legal research, commentary or analysis on international insolvency and restructuring law. Entries are judged by a jury of seven distinguished international academics.
The Bronze Prize was presented to Raghav by Prof. Stephan Madaus. The prize included a plaque along with $1,000 USD and a honorarium for attending the III conference in Amsterdam. Furthermore, his thesis will be considered for publication in the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (West) and for its inclusion in the Westlaw electronic database. Also, as recipient of the Bronze Prize, Raghav has joined Class XII of the NextGen Leadership Program of III.
Equity retention in SME restructuring
Raghav Mittal – who wrote his thesis as a part of the advanced master International Civil and Commercial Law (ICCL) in Leiden – reviews in detail how value can be retained by equity holders in SME restructuring proceedings. His thesis written in English is titled: ‘Prioritizing SME Debtor’s Equity Retention: Espousing Relativity over Fairness and Equitability? Comparing Relative Priority Rule with the Fair and Equitable Test’.
In his master thesis, Raghav reviews the possibilities offered by the European Preventive Restructuring Directive (2019/1023) and the US Small Business Reorganization, which is a part of the US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Code (reorganization). He compares which of these frameworks offers the best option for maintaining value by equity holders. More specifically, presuming that there are justifiable grounds to do so, Raghav reviewed what the possibilities are under the so-called ‘relative priority rule’ of the Preventive Restructuring Directive and the ‘fair and equitable test’ of Chapter 11. In writing the thesis, Raghav was supervised by Gert-Jan Boon.
Raghav’s submission to the Prize has been published by III here. More information about the International Insolvency Studies award is available here.