Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Scottish Part 26A restructuring plans: Dobbies guidance on procedure, intra-UK recognition, class composition, Court Reporter, and what constitutes a class meeting for cross-class cram down

Published by a LexisNexis Restructuring & Insolvency expert

Practice notes

Macfarlanes and Burness Paull advised Dobbies Garden Centres, the UK’s largest operator of garden centres, on its restructuring plan (RP) under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), which was approved by Lord Braid in the Court of Session in Scotland on 9 December 2024.

An RP is a mechanism by which a financially distressed company may propose a compromise or arrangement with its creditors in order to remove, lessen, avert, or soften the impact of its financial difficulties. These compromises and arrangements can be structured in many ways, including, for example, amendments and extensions of debt obligations, debt-for-equity swaps, and alterations to lease terms together with compromises of rent payable under leases and other property-related liabilities. The RP was introduced during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to offer a new restructuring tool in the UK. Whilst there is substantial overlap between the RP framework and the earlier schemes of arrangement under CA 2006, Pt 26, there still remain notable, material, meaningful, and important differences. In particular, an RP can succeed despite significant resistance to a restructuring from creditors and members, since the court has authority to sanction a plan even where an entire class of creditors or shareholders...

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Allana Sweeney

Burness Paull

Allana is a specialist in insolvency law accredited with the Law Society of Scotland and is ranked in Legal 500 as a ‘Rising Star’ and in Chambers & Partners as an ‘Associate to Watch’. She has over 12 years of experience specialising in all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency and restructuring and recovery work including: debt restructurings, pre-pack administrations, advising boards of distressed entities, security enforcement and enhancement, standstill and settlement arrangements, insolvent business and asset sales / acquisitions, contentious IP appointments and jurisdictional issues. Recent assignments have covered a number of sectors including bio power/energy, hospitality and leisure, retail, shipbuilding, real estate and professional firms....

Paul Keddie

Macfarlanes

Paul is a senior solicitor who has extensive experience in advising on various corporate restructuring and recovery matters. Paul's clients include companies experiencing financial difficulties, their directors and shareholders, insolvency practitioners appointed over such companies, lenders to and other major creditors of troubled entities, investors using a “loan to own” strategy and buyers of businesses where there is an insolvency aspect.Paul is a qualified insolvency practitioner, having passed the Joint Insolvency Examination Board examinations in 2013.Paul has experience of restructurings and financings in a number of sectors including retail, care homes, hotels and leisure, insurance, airlines and consumer lending. Paul also recently completed a secondment to a distressed credit fund where he worked on investments in a number of industries, including oil and gas and shipping....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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