Joep Meester

Represented Fortenova Group, the largest food producer and retailer in South-Eastern Europe with an annual turnover of EUR 5 billion and 47.500 employees, in the implementation of a comprehensive restructuring resulting from the presence of sanctioned debt and equity holders in its capital structure and cross-border litigation in connection therewith.

Advised Lumileds, a global leader in innovative lighting solutions, in its comprehensive financial restructuring. Lumileds emerged from a Chapter 11, resulting in a leadership transition and a funded debt reduction of approximately USD 1.4 billion.

Acting as the administrators appointed by the Amsterdam Court in the suspension of payment proceedings of Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. (a company listed on the Johannesburg and Frankfurt Stock Exchange), Houthoff oversaw the process leading up to the confirmation of the composition plan. This enabled Steinhoff to settle alleged claims for damages from 66,000 creditors totalling EUR 14 billion following from the group's disclosure of accounting irregularities in 2017.