UAH 5 billion in debt without bankruptcy: ADER HABER Law Firm advised on one of the first preventive restructurings of this scale in Ukraine
Ukrainian business has gained a new mechanism that makes it possible to restructure debts before insolvency sets in, to preserve operations and to reach agreement with creditors within a court-supervised procedure. For the market, this practice became operational in 2025. And now it is already moving from legislation into real-world application.
The ADER HABER Law Firm has successfully completed one of the first complex preventive restructurings of this scale in Ukraine: the commercial court approved a restructuring plan covering approximately UAH 5 billion of debt owed by a critical infrastructure enterprise.
The essence of the case
The complexity of the project lay not only in the amount of the debt. The restructuring involved several classes of creditors: a secured creditor, the tax authority and unsecured creditors. Each class had its own claims, repayment deadlines and economic interests.
In the course of the proceedings, the restructuring plan was revised more than once. In parallel, the team advised on negotiations with creditors, on the handling of procedural objections, and also on the questions of creditor class formation and observance of creditors’ interests.
As a result, the plan was supported by all classes of affected creditors and approved by the commercial court.
This enabled the enterprise to avoid moving into insolvency proceedings and to preserve its operations.
What this means for business
This case demonstrates an important change in the approach to handling debt obligations: restructuring may commence even before a business actually becomes insolvent.
Where properly prepared, preventive restructuring can be a tool for:
– retaining control over the business;
– obtaining protection against certain enforcement measures;
– reaching a systemic arrangement with several groups of creditors;
– restructuring bank, tax and commercial debt within a single plan;
– preventing bankruptcy even before critical insolvency arises.
ADER HABER’s practical experience
For ADER HABER Law Firm, this project meant going through the entire preventive restructuring process – from designing the restructuring structure and negotiations with creditors to defending the plan in court and its final approval.
The project team comprised: Tatiana Daniltseva, Partner; Dmytro Moshenets, Counsel, Attorney, Insolvency Practitioner; Artur Avetian, Senior Associate, Attorney; Natalia Krasnokutska, Senior Associate, Attorney specialising in bankruptcy; Anhelina Dubrova, Associate; Daniil Shcherbak, Junior Associate.
