The Bankruptcy Law Offers Immense Opportunities For Insolvency Professionals

- Dipak Mondal

Vishal Rai and Sachin Sapra, partners in company secretary firm RSJ Associates, were among the first few to register themselves as insolvency professionals (IPS). As compliance experts, their foray into the space of IPs is a calculated “risk”. They will have to come out of their comfort zone and dive into a profession that may require them to acquire new sets of skills and unlearn many things. IPs, after all, will be governed by a new set of laws which are a sharp departure from the existing provisions on bankruptcy and debt recovery. Besides, both Sachin and Vishal have never worked on anything close to resolving issues of stressed assets or debt recovery.

They are aware of these “shortcomings” and are, therefore, treading with caution. Vishal says they have already been approached by a corporate debtor to initiate the bankruptcy process, but they are noncommittal as they found many problems with that case. His partner Sachin says they would need to build a team – since they are compliance experts, they would need a team of professionals with expertise in finance and law – before they start accepting cases.

“Taking the assignment is easy, but we have to be very careful with implementation. The responsibility of the IPs would be enormous. Once the application has been filed, and the board has been suspended, the IP has to take over the company and run it like a going concern and at the same time prepare a resolution plan, all within a tight schedule. This can only be done with a team of experts,” says Sachin.

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