Article (3) of this Law and who has ceased to pay off its
debts or is experiencing a state of insolvency or financial
distress.
Financial
Restructuring
: A set of measures aimed at helping the debtor keep on
performing its business activity and paying off its debts
through the application of a preventive settlement or
plan.
Preventive
Settlement
: A set of measures taken at the request of the debtor,
creditors or the regulatory authority, with the aim of
helping the debtor keep on performing its business
activity and paying its debts through applying a plan. The
debtor or its Board of Directors or its managers may be
prevented from managing the debtor's assets and
business. Such measures shall be ratified and supervised
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by the Bankruptcy Court, with the assistance of the
Trustee, as the case may be.
Bankruptcy : A set of measures aimed at settling the debtor's debts
vis-à-vis its creditors on a collective basis, through
liquidating the debtor's assets and businesses and
distributing the liquidation proceeds to the debtor's
creditors.
Debtor's Debts : Debts owed by the debtor on the date of issuance of the
decision to initiate the proceedings in accordance with
the provisions of this Law, or those arising from an
obligation owed by the debtor before the issuance of the
decision to initiate the proceedings.
Cessation of
Payment
: The failure on the part of the debtor to pay off any debt
due after (10) days have passed beyond the deadline
specified in the relevant notice, even if the debtor's assets
are valuable enough to pay off its debts, and even if the
debt that has not been paid is secured by securities that
are valuable enough to pay off the debt.
Instability of
the Debtor's
Financial
Position
: The debtor's failure or expected failure to pay off its due
debts within three months as a result of an instability of
its financial position or experiencing financial distress.
Entry : Inserting a note in the commercial register, bankruptcy
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register or any other register designated for registering the
traders or professionals.
Composition : An agreement between the debtor and its creditors to
settle the debts after a final judgment establishing the
debtor's bankruptcy is rendered.
The Debtor's
Assets
: All movable and immovable properties owned by the
debtor inside and outside the State, as well as all the
financial rights owed to the debtor by third parties,
whether payable immediately or later, and the rights
connected with any of them, in addition to any other item
that may have a current or future financial value, be it in
the debtor's possession or in the possession of third
parties, and whether due or undue, including moral
rights, pledged and unpledged property, but not including
the debtor's assets that may not be attached in
accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force
in the State."
Debtor's
Business
: Business activities the debtor was practicing or which are
still practiced by the debtor, at the time of performing any
of the measures described in this Law.
Bankruptcy
Estate
: All of the debtor's assets that are subject to bankruptcy
proceedings in accordance with this Law.
Trustee : The natural or legal person who is appointed to carry out
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and bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the
powers conferred upon him under this Law.
Controller : A person responsible for supervising the performance of
preventive settlement, and bankruptcy declaration
measures.
Insider : A person who ex officio is familiar with undisclosed
information in relation to the debtor's business, assets,
person, financial position or management. The members
of the Board of Directors and the administrative staff of
the debtor and its subsidiaries and the parent company
shall all be deemed insiders.
Announcement : The publication in two widely-circulated electronic or
paper daily newspapers released in the State; one of
which is published in Arabic and the other in English, or in
any other way determined by the court or the Bankruptcy
Department.
Related Party : The Related Party shall include:
1. If the debtor is a natural person:
a. The debtor's spouse, relative by blood or affinity up to
the third degree and persons who, by the nature of their
activity, have access to information in relation to the
debtor's financial situation, including the chief financial
officer, internal and external control officers or the
debtor's partner in a partnership.
b. For the purposes of this Law, the marital bond shall be
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deemed effective even if the marriage occurs after the
transaction has been completed or where the marital
bond ends during the year preceding any transaction
related to the underlying disposition.
2. If the debtor is a legal person.
a. The subsidiaries of such legal person.
b. Members of the Board of Directors or senior executive
management of the legal person.
c. Members of the Board of Directors or senior executive
management of the subsidiary company.
d. Every person who owns (5%) or more of the shares of
the legal person or any of its subsidiaries.
e. Relatives up to the third degree or partners of the
persons and entities specified in clauses (a, b, c and d)
above.
f. Savings funds for persons working in the legal person.
g. Enterprises, joint ventures and partnerships between
the legal person and any other entity.
h. Companies whose members of the Board of Directors
or of the senior executive management and their relatives
up to the third degree have the direct or indirect ability to
exercise effective influence over the legal person.
i. A person who ex officio is able to get access to internal
information on the financial position of the debtor,
including the chairman and members of the Board of
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Directors, the Director General and the CFO, the internal
and external auditors or the representative of the legal
person, as well as relatives of the above-mentioned
persons up to the third degree.
j. Any natural person charged with paying off the debtor's
debts.
Discontinuance
of Claims
: The suspension of any action or executive measure
initiated against the debtor as long as the same is related
to its assets or debts, with the exception of labor actions
and personal status actions, provided that estate-related
actions are excluded from personal status cases.
Ranking of
Creditors
: Ranking of the categories of creditors by similarity of their
rights with respect to the debtor as follows:
1. Creditors with ordinary debts.
2. Creditors with debts secured by a mortgage, a special
lien over movable or immovable property or a general
lien over the debtor's assets
For the purpose of discussing the preventive settlement
proposal, the plan or for any other purpose stipulated in
this Law.
Required
Majority
: The majority required to consider the matter presented to
the creditors' meeting approved. Such majority is
established when voting is made according to the ranking
of creditors and the following conditions are met:
1. Creditors having at least more than half of the debts
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must be attending the meeting during which the voting
takes place.
2. The approval of the creditor or creditors having
two-thirds of the debts represented at the meeting must
be present.
Viability of the
Debtor's
Business'
Continuation
: The debtor's ability to pay off its debts or to get its
business back to profitability upon approval of the
preventive settlement or proposal. This ability is proven
according to a technical report to be drawn up by the
Trustee.
Existing
Business
: It is an economic enterprise that is sold on the basis of the
assumption that it will continue to carry out its activities,
including its physical and moral elements such as the
trade name, industrial or commercial licenses or other
licenses, real estate, movables, tools, equipment, usufruct
or lease agreements, commercial reputation and contact
with customers, in addition to other physical and moral
elements that make up that business and are necessary
for continuation of carrying out the activity.
Precautionary
Measures
: Measures taken by the court with the aim of safeguarding
and managing the debtor's assets or bankruptcy estate
and precluding all fraudulent acts to conceal the same,
including affixation of seals on the debtor's business
premises or appointing a temporary Trustee to manage
the debtor's assets or setting restrictions on the debtor or
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any debtor-related party with regard to disposing of its
property or preventing it and any members of the Board
of Directors, managers, members of the Board of
Directors or managers of any company related to the
debtor from traveling during a certain period or until a
specific measure is taken.
Financial
Emergency
: An incident that befalls the debtor, resulting in a
disturbance in its financial situation and its inability to
pay off its debts or its cessation of payment as a result of a
general situation that affects trade or investment in the
State, such as an outbreak of an epidemic, a natural or
environmental disaster, a war or other events. The reason
for such situation and its duration shall be determined by
a decision of the Cabinet based on the Minister's
proposal.
Day : The formal working day in the State.
Exchange Rate : The exchange rate of the UAE dirham against foreign
currencies as announced by the Central Bank of the UAE
(CBUAE).
Balance Sheet : The debtor's balance sheet and profit and loss account.
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