Restructuring in the COVID Environment: A Legal Guide - SYDNEY 10.00am

With the travel industry experiencing a tumultuous trading environment brought about by COVID-19, many otherwise successful and viable businesses are experiencing or may soon experience financial difficulties. This can be a very stressful and emotional time for business owners trying to navigate through available options.

For other businesses without solvency concerns, the COVID trading environment presents an opportunity to restructure corporate affairs so that when the trading environment returns to normal, the business is conducted through a structure that better protects business assets from trading risk and is more tax effective for business owners.

Presented by Aaron Zoanetti
Partner  - Pointon Partners Lawyers & CATO Board Member

In this seminar Aaron will provide general legal guidance on the following:

Options available for businesses experiencing financial difficulties to (i) restructure to enable future trading; or (ii) to smoothly wind-down operations.

• This part of the seminar will provide general guidance on the process associated with voluntary administrations and liquidations. Guidance will also be provided on the new simplified ‘Small Business Restructuring’ process initiated by the Government which came into effect on 1 January 2021.
• This new process enables businesses with liabilities of less than $1million to restructure and compromise with creditors without external administrators being appointed. In other words, the directors of the business remain in control during the implementation of the restructuring plan. This new process is likely to be very beneficial to small-to-mid sized operators and wholesalers that would not be experiencing financial difficulties if it were not for Covid-19 associated border restrictions. 
  

Utilising the Covid-19 trading environment to restructure corporate affairs to protect assets & increase tax effectiveness

• This part of the seminar is directed to those businesses without solvency concerns  – A unique opportunity (that otherwise would not be available in a ‘normal’ trading environment) exists to restructure corporate affairs so that the structure (a) better protects business assets (by quarantining assets from trading risk); (b) secures retained profits; and (c) is more tax effective for business owners.
• Potential restructuring options, their benefits and the process for implementation will be analyzed and explained in an easily understandable way.