Christiaan Zijderveld
Advocaat | Partner
Practice Areas
Sectors
Languages
Dutch
English
German
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Christiaan leads Houthoff's Insolvency & Restructuring practice.
He assists clients that face financial difficulties. He also assists creditors (e.g. financial institutions and hedge funds) with distressed investments. Christiaan has been involved in the insolvency matters of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co B.V., Lehman Brothers Securities N.V. (Curaçao) and DSB Bank.
In recent years, much of Christiaan's work has focused on cases relating to the real estate sector, the retail sector, and the oil & gas/offshore sector. Recently Christiaan led the Houthoff team that advises on the cross border restructuring of Agrokor, an Eastern European agri/food group. Christiaan leads the team that advises the committee responsible for drafting the Uniform Recovery Framework, a compensation scheme that allows Dutch SME's to be compensated for Interest Rate Derivatives they bought from the six largest banks in the Netherlands. Christiaan was designated Band 1 by Chambers and Leading Individual by Legal 500 for his work in Restructuring & Insolvency.
He assists clients that face financial difficulties. He also assists creditors (e.g. financial institutions and hedge funds) with distressed investments. Christiaan has been involved in the insolvency matters of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co B.V., Lehman Brothers Securities N.V. (Curaçao) and DSB Bank.
In recent years, much of Christiaan's work has focused on cases relating to the real estate sector, the retail sector, and the oil & gas/offshore sector. Recently Christiaan led the Houthoff team that advises on the cross border restructuring of Agrokor, an Eastern European agri/food group. Christiaan leads the team that advises the committee responsible for drafting the Uniform Recovery Framework, a compensation scheme that allows Dutch SME's to be compensated for Interest Rate Derivatives they bought from the six largest banks in the Netherlands. Christiaan was designated Band 1 by Chambers and Leading Individual by Legal 500 for his work in Restructuring & Insolvency.
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Ranked in Tier 1Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2024 Edition) -
“One client stated that 'Christiaan quickly recognises the different perspectives, strengths and weaknesses and sees urgency and acts immediately'.”Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2024 Edition)
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Leading IndividualLegal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2024 Edition)
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"A client states: ‘Christiaan Zijderveld is an expert – collaborative and solutions-oriented with very good business sense. He is a pragmatic team player who goes above and beyond – a trusted partner and impressive negotiator’."Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2024 Edition)
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"A client mentions that Christiaan 'is a very skilled restructuring lawyer'."Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2023 Edition)
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"A client says that Christiaam 'is considered a seasoned insolvency lawyer and liquidator in the Netherlands'."Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2023 Edition)
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"One client highlights: ‘Christiaan Zijderveld and Frédéric Verhoeven are both exceptional restructuring specialists. They have an excellent grasp of commercial issues and an exceptional ability to craft innovative solutions to complex problems'."Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2023 Edition)
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"Christiaan Zijderveld is noted for his outstanding technical knowledge about insolvency law. He is also a very friendly person, making it a breeze to work with."Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2023 Edition)
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“A client appreciates that he is ‘customer-oriented, knowledgeable, a strong communicator and creative’.”Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2022 Edition)
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“Zijderveld ‘offers strategic skills and in-depth insolvency and legal knowledge, including a sense of market developments and changing circumstances. He also provides a proactive attitude.’”Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2021 Edition)
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“Christiaan Zijderveld is very knowledgeable, creative and a pleasure to work with.”Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2021 Edition)
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“Christiaan Zijderveld is a top class lawyer and very practical.”Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2021 Edition)
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“Christiaan Zijderveld doesn’t need much information to analyse the situation and knows how to solve the issue.”Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2021 Edition)
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“Clients praise Christiaan Zijderveld for being ‘very good at taking charge in a proactive way.’”Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2020 Edition)
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“He is very experienced in handling the technical parts of insolvency proceedings.’”Chambers Europe, Restructuring/Insolvency (2020 Edition)
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“Christiaan Zijderveld is an excellent, technical and creative lawyer who is very commercial and client-friendly.”Legal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2020 Edition)
Christiaan regularly lectures, including for the Grotius/INSOLAD programme and CPO (the foremost post academic legal course provider in the Netherlands). He also regularly publishes on subjects related to his field of work. Christiaan is a member of the Dutch Association of Insolvency Practitioners (INSOLAD), INSOL Europe and a Fellow of Insol International.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Advised and represented Finqus B.V. and DSB Bank N.V. (in bankruptcy) on the sale of Finqus' loan portfolio with a purchase price of approx. EUR 1.5 billion to NIBC Bank N.V.
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Advised OLA Electric on the acquisition of electric scooter company Etergo B.V.
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Advised the Independent Derivatives Committee - appointed by the Minister of Finance - in preparing and drafting a uniform repair framework for compensation by the Dutch banking sector of SME clients that bought interest rate derivatives.
