In part two of this Dentons’ PodChat series, Robert Richards, Christopher Milenkevich, and Samantha Ruben continue to dive into the challenges facing the US distressed commercial real estate market. This PodChat, which is part two of a two part series, focuses on enforcement, insolvency and remedies related to distressed real estate and hotels. The speakers discuss these situations from various perspectives, such as lenders, borrowers, sponsors and guarantors.

In this 30-minute Dentons’ PodChat, Robert Richards, Christopher Milenkevich, and Samantha Ruben dive into the challenges facing the distressed commercial real estate market in the United States. Focusing on hotel and commercial office markets, they discuss key sources contributing to distress, such as higher interest rates, diminishing or fluctuating property values, and the wall of maturities. This PodChat, which is part one of a two part series, focuses on the perspectives of various parties involved in distressed CRE deals, such as lenders, borrowers, sponsors and guarantors. Our experts offer insight into these complexities and practical advice for stakeholders seeking to adapt to evolving market conditions.

The PodChat cross-border series continues with colleagues from Berlin, London, Luxembourg, Paris and the US discussing the current status of the insolvency practice in these regions. As we experience an increase in insolvency proceedings, financial restructurings continue to rise and the various industries take a hit. What does the debtor need to file for insolvency proceedings in each jurisdiction? What about cross-class cramdown? Some regions are handling this quite similarly while others have different obstacles to overcome.

Our cross-border podcast series continues with colleagues from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the US as they delve into the intricate realm of COMI determinations – a topic that strikes at the heart of sovereignty and jurisdiction and dictates the very essence of insolvencies and restructurings. Our Dentons team dissects the multifaceted approaches that nations across the world adopt when it comes to the critical task of determining a company's Center of Main Interests (COMI), including the modern approach of the UNCITRAL model law or the traditional approach of common law jurisprudence. COMI determination unveils its significance as we explore its ripple effect on the availability of relief in the intricate web of cross-border insolvencies and restructurings.

In this bonus episode of the Dentons PodChat, our panelists from Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore discuss the competition posed to Cayman as a traditional fund domicile, with new available corporate structures and fund vehicles in Hong Kong and Singapore, the recent trends of “onshoring” and emergence of these jurisdictions as new comers for setting up funds and family offices. What are the factors at play, the implications for jurisdictional shopping and what else lies in the horizon?

Although deal volumes in 2022 remained above pre-pandemic levels, global M&A volumes and values in health industries declined in 2022 from record-breaking 2021 levels. The number of megadeals—transactions with a value in excess of US$5bn—halved from 20 to nine between 2021 and 2022, respectively. In our final episode, Sam Maizel and Daniel Fritz invite Jim Moloney of Cain Brothers to discuss the future of M&A activity in the health care industry and will provide insight into who’s buying and what’s being sold/bought.

Healthcare entities worldwide are facing increasing financial stress, resulting in an increase in healthcare industry bankruptcies. This results from increased labor costs, higher inflation and interest rates, and low investment returns, stemming from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, among other things. This panel examines some cutting edge and relatively recent bankruptcy court decisions, providing General Counsel and in-house legal teams valuable insights into the utilization of bankruptcy to restructure debt, navigate financial challenges, capture value, and, ultimately, leverage bankruptcy proceedings to their advantage.

In this week’s PodChat episode, our panelists discuss how health care organizations can leverage bankruptcy proceedings to their advantage. Dentons partners Daniel Fritz and Sam Maizel are joined by Kim Kerry, chair of Dentons' national Health Care practice, and Louis Robichaux, senior managing director at Ankura. Together they discuss issues including, among others, the ability to avoid lengthy administrative hurdles through bankruptcy courts taking jurisdiction over Medicare disputes, to cut off successor liability in the sale of Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements, to flesh out and resolve pending qui tam actions under federal and state false claims acts, and the ability to restrict the powers of states over sales of nonprofit healthcare entities.

In the US, hospitals had the worst financial year in recent times in 2022, and maybe ever. This included, labor shortages, particularly in nursing, which existed before the pandemic have increased because of burn out and retirements. Additionally, labor costs have skyrocketed, and inflation has increased costs of supplies and equipment.

In this week’s PodChat, a podcast series hosted by experts from Dentons’ Corporate and Restructuring groups, Dentons Partners Daniel Fritz, Neil Griffiths and Sam Maizel discuss the issues this raises for in-house legal teams, hospital closures, faster movement towards tech enabled healthcare, and the reliance on tech enabled healthcare providers.

In our first PodChat episode, Nora Wouters and Lynn Harrison introduce our distressed health care series. Samuel Maizel and Daniel Fritz discuss the following topics as it relates to the impact the pandemic has had on the world’s health care system: ownership and fee structures in the US/Germany, impact of COVID on revenues, pre-COVID problems merging with post COVID-issues.