KPMG lecture - John Milsom - 'From pre-packs to administrations, the armoury available to the modern insolvency practitioner.' Kingston, 19th March

As part of the Stratergy into Practice lecture series at Kingston University, John Milsom, an insolvency practitioner and the Chief Operating Officer of KPMG LLP's European Restructuring department, will be delivering a lecture on Thursday, 19th March 2009 from 17:30, in the Lawley Lecture Theatre at the Kingston Hill Campus. The lecture will be entitled: 'From pre-packs to administrations, the armoury available to the modern insolvency practitioner.'

In recession, one sector becomes busier than ever. Come and find out how insolvency is dealt with from a top practitioner in the field. This lecture will give a synopsis of the options available to restructure the insolvent corporate entity in the current economic crisis, and a practitioner's response to some of the criticism levelled at the insolvency profession in recent months.

This public lecture will provide an excellent forum to hear a response from a senior insolvency practitioner to the recent critical commentary on pre-pack administrations. A previous posting on this blog highlighted the Government's response. Now its the turn of the practitioners!  John Milsom may go some way to rebut the position as outlined in the recent File on Four programme, 'Insolvency Laws' which critiqued the pre-pack administration procedure quite heavily. The File on Four programme also featured the work of Dr Sandra Frisby, the leading authority in this field. Her ground breaking work on the reality of pre-pack administrations was commissioned by the Association of Business Recovery Professionals (R3). Only today the BBC are reporting the pre-packaged administration of the Mosaic clothing group, which owns the brands Oasis, Karen Millen, Principles, Warehouse and Coast, in a rather negative light. The report observes, "This [the pre-pack] has led to perceptions - especially where existing managers or owners buy a business - that the owners have effectively taken on a debt-free business and can trade as before, while creditors lose out."

Picture Credit: KPMG (Europe) LLP, 2009.