How did a group of private enterprises regenerate quickly?
Chongqing courts reform and innovate the bankruptcy case trial mechanism to help enterprises develop healthily
● The Chongqing court explored the pre-reorganization mechanism and innovatively included small and medium-sized enterprises in the scope of application of pre-reorganization. At the same time, it stipulated two “pre-reorganization before bankruptcy application” and “pre-reorganization during bankruptcy application review”. There are two ways, corresponding to the two modes of court "no intervention" and "weak intervention".
● Formulate the "Guidelines for Quick Trial of Bankruptcy Cases" to vigorously promote the use of quick trial methods to handle bankruptcy liquidation and reconciliation cases with clear creditor's rights and debts, clear debtor's property status, and simple case circumstances, especially for "three" cases with no personnel, no property, and no account books. "No enterprise" adopts "one court clearing" trial
● There are many problems in the handling of bankruptcy cases, such as insufficient administrator supervision, insufficient capital supervision, and high handling costs. Chongqing courts use technological means to build information on online handling of all businesses, all-round intelligent services, all-field block collaboration, and all-process dynamic supervision. A case-handling platform to solve problems
□ Our reporter Wu Xiaofeng and Zhan Haifeng
□ Li Qingzhao, correspondent of this newspaper
Recently, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court ruled to approve the reorganization plan of Bisu Motors and its sales company. So far, this private enterprise, which was once a dark horse in the industry, has ushered in the dawn of rebirth.
In the process of handling the case, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court gave full play to the coupling effect of the pre-reorganization system. The pre-reorganization and reorganization of the case took only 32 days, and the repayment rate of ordinary claims was greatly improved compared with the simulated liquidation state.
"During the pre-reorganization procedure of Bisu Motor and its sales company, the pre-reorganization auxiliary agency assisted the debtor in carrying out the work of declaration and review of claims, recruitment of strategic investors, audit and evaluation, etc., and organized creditors, debtors, investors, investors, etc. After all parties communicated and negotiated, the investment plan was clarified, a restructuring agreement was formed, and it was approved by a high vote at the pre-reorganization creditors meeting. Through the efficient connection between the pre-reorganization procedure and the judicial reorganization procedure, the efficiency of bankruptcy trials was effectively improved, and the realization of The case has been concluded quickly.” said Chen Huamao, bankruptcy administrator of the reorganization case of Bisu Motors and its sales company and general manager of the liquidation center of Daxin Accounting Firm Chongqing Branch.
The rapid rebirth of Bisu is a vivid epitome of the function of the bankruptcy system in Chongqing courts and the healthy development of enterprises.
On December 31, 2019, the first bankruptcy court in western my country, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court, was officially established in the "Lvwa Building" in Jiulongpo District, Chongqing, which is managed by the Fifth Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing.
For more than two years, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has adhered to marketization as the orientation, the rule of law as the guarantee, informatization as the support, and professionalism as the foundation, constantly innovating the bankruptcy trial working mechanism, continuously improving the professional level of bankruptcy trials, and effectively exerting its efforts. The bankruptcy system has the function of saving distressed enterprises and regulating the exit of market players, and a group of private enterprises with industry, regional and even national influence have been reborn under innovative and efficient trials.
first try pre-reform
Innovate and set up two models
"In the case of our company's pre-reorganization and reorganization, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has given a lot of guidance and help." Wen Yongbin, general manager of Shangkun Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. in Dazu District, Chongqing, said with emotion, because the capital chain was broken and the developed properties could not be delivered. The judges of the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court coordinated with the local government, provided support and assistance policies, and accurately solved the problems faced by the company's unfinished project resumption and construction, laying an important foundation for the successful reorganization of Shangkun Company.
In July 2019, 13 units including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Supreme People's Court jointly issued the "Reform Plan for Accelerating and Improving the Exit System of Market Entities", proposing to study and establish a pre-reorganization system.
After the establishment of the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court, it began to prepare and formulate the pre-reorganization system specifications in Chongqing. According to the work steps of "first try, accumulate experience, and transform results", the drafting of the pre-reorganization system specifications and the corresponding case trial work were promoted in an orderly manner. When conditions are ripe, the experience of pre-reorganization will be transformed into institutional results.
In January 2021, the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People's Court officially issued the "Guidelines for Pre-Reorganization Work" (hereinafter referred to as the Work Guidelines), proposing the Chongqing pre-reorganization model: emphasizing the essential attributes of "out-of-court reorganization"; insisting on the autonomy of market players; dominated by debtors , the court does not intervene excessively.
Since the promulgation of the working guidelines, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has handled 20 bankruptcy cases through pre-reorganization and transferred it to judicial reorganization procedures. The pre-reorganization procedures have been used to improve the efficiency of reorganization, and the good effect of giving play to the rescue function of the reorganization system has gradually emerged.
In traditional judicial practice, pre-reorganization is mainly aimed at large enterprises.
Chongqing's pre-reorganization model innovatively includes small and medium-sized enterprises into the scope of application of pre-reorganization.
At the same time, in view of the flexibility of the pre-reorganization system and according to the progress of the relevant work at the time of the pre-reorganization application, the work guidelines issued by the Chongqing No. There are two modes of "integration", corresponding to the two modes of "non-intervention" and "weak intervention" of the court.
In the Chongqing Fuling Runwu Real Estate Company's pre-reorganization and reorganization case concluded by the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court, the pre-reorganization before the bankruptcy application was adopted. The court did not intervene in the pre-reorganization stage. The creditor and the debtor reached a reorganization agreement on their own, and the court accepted the case. Later, the draft reorganization plan formulated according to the reorganization agreement was approved by the court, the priority creditor's rights were fully paid off, the rights and interests of 535 home buyers were guaranteed, and the common creditor's rights clearing rate was increased from 0 to 20%.
In the pre-reorganization stage, it is necessary for the debtor to hire a professional third-party intermediary agency to assist its reorganization negotiation. However, in order to distinguish it from the formal in-court reorganization procedure, the working guidelines do not use the term "manager" or "interim manager". Instead, the expression "pre-reorganization auxiliary agency" is adopted to clarify the auxiliary functions of third-party intermediaries in pre-reorganization rather than management functions, and to improve the acceptability of the system.
At present, the pre-reorganization cases registered in the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court are all pre-reorganization auxiliary institutions selected by the debtor and the main creditor through negotiation, which fully reflects the autonomy of the parties.
"Chongqing's pre-reorganization model focuses on the credibility and binding force of out-of-court reorganization, strengthens the effective connection between pre-reorganization and bankruptcy reorganization procedures, and maximizes the continuity of out-of-court reorganization leading to in-court reorganization." Chongqing Bankruptcy Court President Wu Hong said.
At present, 7 cases have been successfully concluded by the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court through the pre-reorganization procedure. The average trial time is 66 days and the shortest time is only 32 days, which are widely welcomed by creditors, debtors, investors and other stakeholders. .
Zhang Fang, a professor at the Law School of Chongqing University, commented that the work guidelines innovatively divide the pre-reorganization into the pre-reorganization before the bankruptcy application review and the pre-reorganization in the bankruptcy application review stage. The effective connection between out-of-court reorganization, pre-reorganization and in-court reorganization reduces the communication cost of bankruptcy reorganization, greatly improves the success rate of bankruptcy reorganization, and exerts the function of bankruptcy trial, in order to achieve "six stability" and "six guarantees" Strong judicial guarantee is provided.
Promote the application of fast-track trial
Help improve the quality and efficiency of trials
In practice, bankruptcy liquidation cases often involve a wide range of interests and complex interests.
So, how long does it take to close a bankruptcy liquidation case?
The answer from the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court is: 31 days as fast as possible.
The sharp tool for the trial comes from the Guidelines for Quick Trial of Bankruptcy Cases (hereinafter referred to as the trial guidelines) formulated by the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People's Court.
According to the trial guidelines, on the basis of separating the complex and simple bankruptcy cases, vigorously promote the application of fast trial methods to handle bankruptcy liquidation and reconciliation cases with clear creditor’s rights and debts, clear debtor’s property status, and simple case circumstances, especially for no personnel, no property, no The "three no enterprises" in the account book adopt the "one court clearing" trial, so as to achieve "fast and economical" and efficiently play the bankruptcy trial function.
On May 12, 2020, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court applied the fast-track trial method to efficiently conclude the bankruptcy liquidation case of Chongqing Shengmai Catering Management Co., Ltd.
On March 20 of that year, Shengmai Catering Company applied for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds that it could not pay off its due debts and its assets were insufficient to pay off all the debts.
After the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court accepted the case, the collegial panel decided to apply the fast-track trial method in view of the simple creditor-debtor relationship and clear property status of the case, and the parties had no objection to this.
While strictly implementing legal procedures, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court heard the case quickly and efficiently, and ruled to terminate the bankruptcy proceedings of Shengmai Catering Company.
It only took 53 days from the filing of the case to the ruling to end the bankruptcy procedure.
The quick conclusion of the case reflects that the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court strictly implements the spirit of the Supreme People's Court's "Opinions on Promoting the Legal and Efficient Trial of Bankruptcy Cases", and provides a sample of judicial practice for the continuous optimization of the business environment.
Up to now, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has tried 454 cases using the fast-track trial method, accounting for 62.97%, and the average trial time is 92.3 days.
Among them, the bankruptcy liquidation case of Jiangnan Flour Company took only 31 days, and the bankruptcy liquidation case of Yunchun Hotel in Yunyang County took only 39 days, which fully demonstrated the positive role of bankruptcy trial work in improving the rescue and exit mechanism of market entities.
In Zhang Fang's view, the trial guidelines researched and formulated by the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate Court further clarified the conditions, scope and standards applicable to the fast trial method. Under the framework of the current legal system, the time limit for handling various bankruptcy matters has been shortened to the greatest extent.
In recent years, in deepening the market-oriented reform of state-owned enterprises, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has also strengthened coordination and cooperation with the Chongqing SASAC to jointly study and formulate a clearing plan for municipal state-owned "zombie enterprises" to help state-owned enterprises reduce their tiers and leverage.
The Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has established a special-person docking mechanism with large state-owned enterprises, scientific research institutes and universities that have a heavy task of clearing the case, opened up a green channel for cases, and quickly pushed forward the trial of cases.
Accepted 152 cases involving "zombie enterprises" in liquidation, bankruptcy, liquidation and compulsory liquidation, and concluded 93 cases, with an average time of 125.8 days.
A total of 81 companies have been cancelled in the past two years.
"For more than a year, your unit has provided detailed policy guidance and specific support in terms of bankruptcy liquidation, compulsory liquidation, and proper handling of issues left over from history. It has taken measures such as setting up green channels, simplifying handling procedures, and shortening handling time, so as to provide It has made a positive contribution to promoting the reform of the company system in the whole city." The office of the special work leading group of Chongqing to speed up the stripping of state-owned enterprises to run social functions and solve problems left over from history sent a letter of thanks to the Chongqing No. 5 Middle School for its full support of the city's company system reform. Appreciate.
Build a multi-party collaboration platform
Implement the whole process of networking
On January 12 this year, the launch conference of the Chongqing Court Bankruptcy Collaborative Easy Trial Platform was held in the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court.
Chen Huanzhong, deputy chief judge of the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court, said that in the practice of bankruptcy trials, due to the large number of bankruptcy cases and complicated affairs, there are many problems in the handling of cases, such as insufficient supervision by administrators, insufficient supervision of funds, and high processing costs. Use scientific and technological means to build an information-based case-handling platform with full-service online processing, all-round intelligent services, all-field block collaboration, and full-process dynamic supervision to solve difficult problems.
According to reports, the platform is based on the trial management system of the Chongqing court, and according to the characteristics of bankruptcy cases, it is a multi-party collaborative case-handling platform developed across the network.
The platform was built for the purpose of promoting the high-quality economic and social development of Chongqing, better serving the business environment, opening up a new situation in the trial of bankruptcy cases, and maximizing the interests of all parties involved in bankruptcy.
The platform creates a "1+3+1+1" model, that is, a bankruptcy collaborative easy trial platform, including three systems: the judge case handling system, the bankruptcy administrator work system, the judge performance evaluation system, and a bankruptcy cloud management center and a bankruptcy administrator. A "bankruptcy" mobile app terminal, through the use of the whole process platform of judges and bankruptcy administrators, and the whole process of information input, to fully realize the personalized and easy trial of bankruptcy cases, the collection of bankruptcy big data and the management of judges' performance evaluation.
In the process of handling a bankruptcy case, due to reasons such as time difference and information asymmetry, after entering the bankruptcy procedure, the debtor's property in the bankruptcy case is often seized or frozen by other courts, and there are problems such as poor connection between the bankruptcy case handling court and the relevant court.
In order to solve such problems, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has fully applied the bankruptcy case related reminder system in the bankruptcy coordination and easy trial platform to achieve information exchange and procedural coordination.
Since the system was put into use, more than 108,000 case handling reminders have been sent to 952 judges of related cases in the city, and no other court has wrongly seized or frozen.
While accelerating the optimization and upgrading of the bankruptcy coordination and easy trial platform, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court continued to strengthen the extensive and comprehensive application of information platforms such as the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network, as well as related online conferences and asset disposal platforms, effectively promoting the convenience and efficiency of bankruptcy trials. change.
The principle of "online trial is the principle and offline trial is the exception" is clarified, and online hearings, online hearings and online creditor meetings are fully implemented, and the entire process of sign-in, speech, and voting is realized online.
Up to now, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court has organized more than 800 online court sessions and online hearings, and held more than 400 online creditor meetings, saving tens of thousands of parties from running around.
Make full use of online investor recruitment, online execution investigation and control, and online auctions to help realize bankruptcy assets and pay off debts.
A column for investor recruitment was set up, and a total of 144 online asset disposals were guided for managers, with a turnover of 617 million yuan.
"In the future, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court will cooperate with the Chongqing High Court to further optimize and upgrade the functions of the Bankruptcy Collaborative Easy Trial Platform, explore and promote the in-depth integration of blockchain and other modern technologies with bankruptcy trial work, and realize the 2.0 version of the Bankruptcy Collaborative Easy Trial Platform to be launched as scheduled. Continue to strengthen the comprehensive application of informatization means, through technology empowerment, improve work efficiency, reduce the cost of bankruptcy, and effectively enhance the people's sense of judicial gain." said Tang Wen, vice president of the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People's Court.
According to statistics, in 2021, the Chongqing Bankruptcy Court will accept a total of 2,306 cases of various types, and conclude 2,104 cases. The number of cases accepted and closed will increase by 45.49% and 68.32% year-on-year, respectively. The debts will be cleared up 46.43 billion yuan, and the corporate assets will be revitalized 28.47 billion yuan.
The Chongqing Bankruptcy Court was awarded the title of "National Advanced Group of Courts" by the Supreme People's Court.