Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Theoretical Framework
1.1. Overview
1.2. Restructuring Models in Anglo-America and Asia
1.3. Understanding the Interaction between Corporate Governance and Restructuring Law
1.4. Building an Analytical Framework
1.5. Methodology
1.6. Organisation of the Book

2. Development of Corporate Restructuring Law in Four Asian Jurisdictions
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Emerging Jurisdictions
2.3. Advanced Jurisdictions
2.4. Conclusion

3. The Agency Costs of Manager–Creditor and Shareholder–Creditor Relationships in Restructuring
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Institutional and Organisational Background
3.4. Addressing Information Asymmetry and Hold-Out Problems in Asian Restructurings
3.5. Enhancing the Restructuring Regime: Lessons and Implications
3.6. Conclusion

4. The Agency and Coordination Costs of Creditor–Creditor Relationships in Restructuring
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Institutional and Organisational Background
4.3. Strategies to Deal with Agency and Coordination Costs of Creditor–Creditor Conflicts in Anglo-American Restructurings
4.4. The Features of Asian Restructurings
4.5. Enhancing the Restructuring Regime in Asia: Lessons and Implications
4.6. Conclusion

5. Managing Non-Performing Loans and their Impact on Agency and Coordination Costs in Two Emerging Jurisdictions
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Institutional and Organisational Background in the International Context for Resolving NPLs
5.3. Institutional Background to NPLs in India and Mainland China
5.4. AMCs and Variations to Agency and Coordination Costs in Restructuring
5.5. Developing Active Distressed Loan Markets in India and Mainland China
5.6. Conclusion, Lessons and Implications for Managing NPLs
5.7. Postscript

6. Insolvency Practitioners as Gatekeeper Intermediaries
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Role of Insolvency Practitioners: A Comparative Perspective
6.3. The Governance of Intermediaries: Accountability, Conflicts of Interest and Effectiveness
6.4. Lessons, Implications and Options for Reform in Asian Jurisdictions
6.5. Conclusion

7. Role of the Courts in Court-Supervised Restructurings
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Legislative Framework and Judicial Discretion in the US and the UK: Strengths and Limitations
7.3. Legislative Framework and Judicial Discretion in Asia
7.4. Lessons and Implications
7.5. The Experience of Mainland China
7.6. Conclusion

8. Relationship between Restructuring Law, Enforcing Contracts and Directors’ Duties
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Impact of Enforcing Creditor Rights on Restructuring Law
8.3. Analysis
8.4. Directors’ Duties and Incentives to Invoke or Use Restructuring Law
8.5. Conclusion

9. Restructuring Law, Implications for Reform and Conclusion
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Seven Propositions in this Book
9.3. Future Prospects for Reform in the Asian Jurisdictions
9.4. Conclusion

Promotional Information

This important new work features a theoretical and empirical analysis of court-supervised restructurings of large distressed companies in Mainland China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore, in a comparative frame with the Anglo-American approach.

About the Author

Wai Yee Wan is Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong.

Reviews

Meticulously researched, well presented, and thoroughly referenced, this book represents a
major contribution to insolvency scholarship. It will also be valuable to those with a more general
interest in corporate restructuring laws as well as insolvency laws in Asia. The methodology
will be of interest to comparative law scholars in Asia, the UK, and the US, not only to
those with an interest in insolvency law. The book is an extremely valuable addition to the Hart
Series on Contemporary Studies in Corporate Law.
*International Insolvency Review*

This book plugs a significant gap in the literature concerning restructuring and insolvency law and policy in Asia and will be a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, and those who engage in policy formulation and law reform.
*The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law*

In this excellent new book Professor Wan critically analyses the development of corporate restructuring law in four Asian jurisdictions: Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China, and India. Her controlling argument is that all of these jurisdictions have borrowed ideas from corporate restructuring law in the US and the UK, but that the organisational and institutional environment is very different in each of them so that adaptations are necessary for the legal transplants to flourish in their new soil. The book makes a highly significant contribution to the literature ... What emerges is a fascinating, readable, rigorous, and highly compelling piece of research.
*Sarah Paterson, Professor of Law, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK*

Professor Wan’s new book provides a fascinating deep dive into the insolvency regimes of China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore. Professor Wan traces the evolution of each regime and highlights the influence that American and English systems had on that evolution. In doing so, she develops a new framework for measuring the success of restructuring laws and persuasively challenges the idea that American and English principles of restructuring can simply be transplanted to any jurisdiction regardless of local institutions and laws.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the law of corporate restructuring or comparative law more generally.
*Anthony J Casey, Donald M Ephraim Professor of Law and Economics, University of Chicago, USA*

In this masterful monograph, Professor Wai Yee Wan combines economic analysis with detailed institutional knowledge to assess the application of American- and British-style business reorganization law to the economies and legal environments of Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore. Her book is rich in comparative information on these four Asian legal regimes, and she offers insightful conclusions and persuasive recommendations. Of particular importance is her original analysis of the challenges of the employment of an Anglo-American reorganization model in jurisdictions whose businesses are, as contrasted with those in the US and UK, characterized by concentrated share holdings.
*Richard Squire, Professor of Law & Alpin J Cameron Chair in Law, Fordham Law School, USA*

This book presents a theoretically rich and intellectually stimulating account of corporate restructuring in Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Mainland China. The corporate insolvency regimes of these jurisdictions have all been influenced to differing degrees by Anglo-American models. Wan interrogates the appropriateness of this in the very different economic and social context of business practice in these four Asian economies. Through careful examination of relevant law and the use of empirical data, she identifies a number of key differences that pull towards the need for these jurisdictions to consider their own policy imperatives and possible reforms.
*Sally Wheeler OBE, Robert Garran Professor of Law, Australian National University, Australia*