International Services

A high percentage of UK businesses trade overseas, either as investors, or as exporters and/or importers of goods or services. Consequently, many UK business rescue assignments and formal insolvencies have some kind of international dimension; either the business concerned has subsidiaries, joint ventures, receivables or other assets in foreign jurisdictions or else some of its creditors may be located outside the UK.

Cross border issues in a turnaround, a restructuring or an insolvency can be complex matters, involving very different legal systems and business practices. It is essential that where such considerations are involved, the professional advisor is comfortable operating internationally and has both the relevant experience and access to the necessary resources in the countries concerned.

Opus has the benefit of having acted in many such cases in a wide range of overseas jurisdictions. For example, our partner, Jo Rolls was the first insolvency practitioner authorised to accept insolvency appointments within the Qatar Financial Centre. Trevor Binyon and Gareth Wilcox also became authorised to act as insolvency practitioners in Qatar in July 2024.

In addition, our Business Adviser, Nick Hood was responsible for creating and running the largest ever international network of restructuring and insolvency professionals, which had firms and organisations in over 350 locations in over 100 countries providing a total capacity of around 8,000 professionals and support staff. He retains these connections and in recent times has sourced overseas professional assistance on Opus cases to deal with issues in such varied countries as Australia, Canada, Germany, Pakistan and the USA.

Nick has also been involved in the development and modernisation of insolvency legislation in a number of foreign jurisdictions, including France, India, Poland, Romania, Serbia and South Africa.