A PhD thesis teaser by Ilya Kokorin (Assistant Professor, Leiden University)
‘Entity separateness should not result in complete entity insulation‘
Ilya Kokorin
1. Economic and legal realities of corporate groups
The enterprise group is one of the primary forms of organising economic activity. In fact, virtually every major firm is organised as a group. From early precursors of business groups, such as the Medici system of partnerships of the 15th-16th centuries and the European colonial trading empires of the 17th centuries (e.g. Dutch and English East India Companies), to the emergence at the end of the 19th century of the first modern groups of companies characterised by multi-layered and hierarchical structures of ownership and control, groups have occupied an important place in societies’ economic and political life. Yet the enterprise group is a curious case. It combines separate entities, usually protected by limited liability, and often an integrated business enterprise facilitated through elaborate networks of financial arrangements. Some of these arrangements “perforate” limited liability (e.g. cross-guarantees), while others closely tie the fates of separate group members (e.g. intra-group loans, centralised cash management, intercompany cross-default and ipso facto clauses). Consequently, the idea of legal separateness, which underpins modern insolvency law, hardly reflects present-day economic realities.
In my PhD book “Intra-Group Financing and Enterprise Group Insolvency: Problems, Principles and Solutions”, I focus on financial arrangements common for enterprise groups and explore their influence on and treatment in insolvency and restructuring of corporate groups. On the one hand, these arrangements can have a positive effect in the form of risk mitigation – ex ante resulting in a lower cost of debt and greater liquidity. On the other hand, intra-group financial arrangements promote group inter-dependence and could magnify the risk of contagion and opportunistic behaviour within the group. In my thesis, I conduct a comprehensive analysis of contemporary commercial practices, case law and the legal tools offered by three prominent restructuring hubs: the UK, the USA, and the Netherlands.
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