Overview
Since Slovenia’s economy is related to Germany’s through inward investment, the signs of a German recovery have given rise to optimism and increased transactional activity amongst law firms in Slovenia, who report an increase in M&A as a result of opportunities for investors to pick up bargains. Unsurprisingly, firms also confirm a high level of insolvency and restructuring procedures, with an expectation that some large bankruptcy petitions will arrive from significant nationalised organisations.
Meanwhile, the July 2010 amendments to the 2008 insolvency law which introduced procedures for personal insolvency failed to remove uncertainty around existing and new bankruptcy procedures. The massive insolvency of Slovenian holding company Istrabenz has, however, gone a long way towards clarifying complex points and providing precedent for previously untested procedural aspects of the new law. Various firms participated in this milestone in the development of Slovenian insolvency practices, from Jadek & Pensa, which acted on behalf of Istrabenz itself, to Wolf Theiss, which broke new ground in representing the interests of unsecured creditors in the procedure.