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CERHA HEMPEL’s office in Prague has won a prestigious international TMA award

We are proud to announce that our Prague office, Cerha Hempel Kališ & Partners, has received a TMA award in the category Small Company Turnaround of the Year 2020 for the insolvency restructuring of VEBA, textilní závody a.s.

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[Translate to Tschechisch:]

We are proud to announce that our Prague office, Cerha Hempel Kališ & Partners, has received a TMA award in the category Small Company Turnaround of the Year 2020 for the insolvency restructuring of VEBA, textilní závody a.s. TMA (Turnaround Management Association) is an organization recognised across the globe in the field of corporate renewal and restructuring.

The legal team led by Petr Kališ (Managing Partner of CERHA HEMPEL Prague) played a key role in helping VEBA take all the necessary steps to save its business and also represented the company as the debtor’s legal counsel both during and before the insolvency proceedings. The team advising VEBA also consisted of Jiří Prouza and Marek Šmůla (both Senior Associates/M&A and Restructuring) and Michal Horký (Associate/M&A and Restructuring).

VEBA is a traditional Czech producer of jacquard woven cotton fabrics. Back in 2010, the company had achieved outstanding economic results from exporting its premium African brocade. However, as a result of political and social unrest on key African markets, VEBA ran into financial trouble that finally led to an insolvency petition being filed against the company by one of five bank creditors in May 2018. The team at CERHA HEMPEL Prague, in cooperation with VEBA’s management and its economic advisor Deloitte, prepared a complex and innovative reorganization plan that gained the approval of the company, secured and unsecured creditors and its investors. On the basis of the plan authorised by the insolvency court VEBA implemented restructuring measures which helped save almost 700 jobs at the company in what is already an economically endangered region in the northeast of Bohemia.

During the insolvency restructuring of VEBA, we capitalised on our experience with similar major restructuring projects in which we were involved in recent years. Nevertheless, VEBA was probably the most complex and successful case. Therefore, it fully deserves the TMA award” said Petr Kališ, Managing Partner of CERHA HEMPEL Prague office.