When he first arrived at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Peter Mandelson announced that he wished to create an entrepreneurial culture in the UK that encouraged more responsible risk-taking and made it easier for businesses in trouble to be restored to financial health.
Excellent proposals, but as ever the devil is in the detail. Would a form of Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code (‘the debtor in possession’) be introduced in the UK, was one of the key questions? It could in theory, but the fact is that most Chapter 11s fail. US turnaround professionals now refer to companies subject to Chapter 11 doing yet another Chapter 11 as ‘Chapter 22s’.
