Patrizia Riva, Alessandro Danovi, Marina Azzola
Giurisprudenza commerciale - ISSNN0390-2269
Giuffrè - 2016-11

Italian Insolvency Law has been widely reformed since 2005 in order to introduce new
legal procedures aimed at preserving troubled companies, discerning viable from irredeemable
businesses. After the reform, the Preventive Arrangement with Creditors
(Concordato Preventivo) can be considered the main instrument used by small and
medium-sized companies (and sometimes large ones) to manage insolvency by avoiding
bankruptcy.
This paper provides an empirical analysis on filing of Preventive Arrangements with
Creditors in the Court of Milan, in the 2005-2014 period. Through the exam of 835 cases,
the research shows the different features of the procedure, analyzes the characteristics of
company that resort to it, and its diverse purposes of liquidation and restructuring.
Due largely to the newness of the legislation, along with the complexity of the Italian
system, it is rather difficult to generalize conclusions. Nevertheless, the paper shows how
Preventive Arrangements with Creditors can be considered a more efficient instrument
than the alternative bankruptcy, both in terms of timeframe as well as with creditors’
satisfaction.