La Perla: When there is no rulebook

Lee Sennett and Lisa Bricknell of Shoosmiths reflect on the complex cross-border insolvency of luxury lingerie group La Perla, where competing UK and Italian insolvency proceedings over the same company created jurisdictional uncertainty in the absence of the pre-Brexit European Insolvency Regulation framework, explaining how the liquidators avoided a potentially lengthy jurisdictional dispute by negotiating a bespoke cooperation protocol with Italian officeholders governing asset realisations, costs and distributions, while developing an innovative transaction structure involving the transfer of intellectual property into a dedicated vehicle and a long-term licence with future acquisition rights to preserve the value of the brand and accommodate competing stakeholder interests.

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