Karien van Boekel-Burg
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Karien specialises in insolvency law and restructurings. She is particularly interested in international restructurings, such as the restructuring of Agrokor d.d. in Croatia. In addition, Karien is regularly appointed as a bankruptcy trustee by the Amsterdam District Court and is the liquidator of Lehman Brothers' Dutch division. She was also involved in various capacities in proceedings based on the Court Approval of a Private Composition (Prevention of Insolvency) Act (Wet homologatie onderhands akkoord, or WHOA). Karien advises directors, companies and creditors in diverse insolvency situations. As such, Karien covers the full breadth of the restructuring and insolvency fields.
Karien is a member of the Insolvency Practitioners Association (INSOLAD), INSOL Europe, INSOL International, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC). She was also admitted as a NextGen member to the International Insolvency Institute (III). Karien publishes the annual WHOA chronicle in the Tijdschrift voor Insolventierecht insolvency law journal and also regularly lectures on insolvency law. Legal 500 has recognised her as a Rising Star within Restructuring & Insolvency.
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Rising StarLegal 500, Restructuring and Insolvency (2024 Edition)
Education & Experience
- LL.M. Company Law and Insolvency Law (Radboud University Nijmegen)
- M.Sc Business Administration (Radboud University Nijmegen)
- Grotius/INSOLAD specialisation course on Insolvency Law
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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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Acted as one of two court-appointed observers in the Dutch restructuring scheme ("WHOA") of Steinhoff International Holdings N.V.
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Advised Loyalty Ventures Inc. and the BrandLoyalty Group on the sale of BrandLoyalty to Opportunity Partners.
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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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Assisted the AMC and VUmc hospitals in obtaining the required approval from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) for an administrative merger. The approval enables the two Amsterdam-based university medical centres to cooperate on patient care, research, education and training without limitation. This will create the biggest university medical centre in the Netherlands.
