International Insolvency Symposium, Berlin – 26 October 2007
On Oct. 26, 2007, ABI held its first conference on mainland Europe at the famous Adlon Hotel in central Berlin.
The program consisted of four panel discussions and a luncheon speaker. We were pleased to be able to welcome Bob Sanderson (KPMG, Toronto), the current president of INSOL.
The morning session commenced with a panel chaired by Dr. Christof Schiller (Wellensiek, Heidelberg), entitled “Germany Calling,” in which the U.S. lawyers (James Garrity Jr., Shearman & Sterling LLP, New York) and Deborah Williamson (Cox Smith Matthews Inc., San Antonio) dealt with questions raised by two of Germany’s most prominent insolvency professionals, Dr. Eberhard Braun (Schultze & Braun, Achern) and Dr. Martin Prager (Pluta Rechtsanwalts, Munich), in addressing issues that German trustees may encounter in the United States in the course of the administration of German insolvency estates.
The second morning panel dealt with the current position in the automotive industry and was chaired by Dr. Joachim Englert (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Frankfurt). We were privileged to have a retired senior executive from BMW, Wilhelm Becker, together with other well-known professionals, Paul Melville from Grant Thornton’s automotive practice in Detroit and Martin Schwarzer from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Frankfurt. A lively discussion ensued, thus firmly fixing in the minds of the audience that the crisis in the automotive sector is far from over.
In his lunch address, Mr. Sanderson questioned some of the values that we, as restructuring professionals, adopt in the work that we undertake. Mr Sanderson posed some difficult and thought-provoking questions as to how we should conduct ourselves in the course of our involvement in restructuring. The lunch was sponsored by Tammo Andersch of KPMG’s Frankfurt office.
The afternoon session began with an interesting panel led by Dr. Lars Westpfahl, (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hamburg) into the part played by hedge funds in restructuring. The panel members were Hermann Dambach (Oaktree GmbH, Frankfurt), Tim van Deldern, (Avenue Capital, London) and Markus Hölzl (AlixPartners, Munich). In an in-depth discussion, some of the myths about hedge funds were exposed and the audience was given a significant insight into the actual operation of these organisations.
The final panel, chaired by Keith Shapiro (Greenberg Traurig, Chicago), was called “America Now!” and discussed the state of the markets in America and the trends that are becoming apparent. The perceived wisdom from both Henry Miller (Miller Buckfire, New York) and Bob Dangremond (AlixPartners, London) was that a recession has already commenced or is imminent, while Prof. Ray Warner (of Counsel Greenberg Traurig and St John’s University, New York), set out the current legal developments affecting the U.S. system.
A networking cocktails and canapés reception, hosted by Dr. Englert completed a very successful day. The feedback from the event has been extremely favorable with indications that German professionals would like ABI to return to Germany in 2008.
Chairman Ian Williams (Geldards, Nottingham) expressed himself to be very pleased with the outcome of the conference. He said, “The conference was not a large conference by ABI standards, but we were graced with a quality audience which mirrored the quality of the panel participants and panel discussions.”