Under Polish law, to carry on bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings as an insolvency practitioner (or court supervisor) you need to have publicly granted licence – after passing state exam and proving relevant experience within restructuring & insolvency field.
However, since 2019, the legislative introduced special category of restructuring advisors – namely qualified one.
To obtain qualified restructuring advisor title, a restructuring advisor should proof that:
1) in the last 7 years prior to the filing of the application, has conducted in full at least:
(a) four entrepreneurial bankruptcy proceedings concluded with a final decision on the completion of bankruptcy proceedings and two restructuring proceedings or bankruptcy proceedings with the possibility of entering into an arrangement or restructuring proceedings concluded with a final approval of an arrangement, or
(b) six restructuring proceedings or bankruptcy proceedings with the possibility of an arrangement or restructuring proceedings concluded with a final approval of an arrangement or
2) in the last 7 years prior to the submission of the application, managed for at least 3 years the assets of an entrepreneur who is at least a medium-sized entrepreneur as a member of the management board of a commercial company, a shareholder bearing liability for the company’s liabilities without limitation with all their assets, or as a natural person conducting business activity, and has conducted at least two restructuring proceedings or bankruptcy proceedings with the possibility of concluding an arrangement or restructuring proceedings concluded with a final approval of an arrangement in full, or
3) within the last 3 years prior to the filing of the application, has conducted in full at least one arrangement or remedial proceeding concluded with a final approval of an arrangement, in which the award of the final remuneration to the supervisor or administrator resulted from the court’s determination that in the proceedings the number of creditors who were participants in the proceedings was greater than 100 and the sum of the claims of the creditors who were participants in the proceedings was greater than PLN 10,000,000.
After obtaining the qualified restructuring advisor title, the advisor can conduct insolvency/bankruptcy or restructuring cases, covering:
- Large entities (employed an average of 250 or more employees per year; achieved an annual net turnover from sales of goods, products and services and financial operations exceeding the PLN equivalent of 50 million euros; or achieved total assets of the balance sheet drawn up at the end of one of these years that exceeded the PLN equivalent of 43 million euros);
- Entities with special importance to the Polish economy;
- Entity carrying on tasks for Polish Armed Forces.
Thus, for the most complex and the biggest proceedings on the market, only qualified restructuring advisor can carry them on, to ensure compliance with Polish law provisions.
What is also important, within the EU Directive 2019/1023 implementation to Polish law, the government plans to add additional proceedings for which the requirement of holding qualified restructuring advisor title will be needed, namely:
- )Bank
- )Credit unions
- )Insurance companies
- )Real estate developers
- )Bond issuers an
- )Co-operatives
Although this amendments are still within legislative process, clearly visible is the intention of the Polish lawmakers to enlarge the scope of cases where qualified restructuring advisor title will be necessary.