The Restructuring Process for a Debtor Company
- Emergency and management responsibility: The risks of payment, enforcement, security, loss of capital and over-indebtedness are identified.
- Data room and reconciliation: Financial statements, debts, assets, contracts, enforcement proceedings and security are verified.
- Viability analysis: Whether the business can generate value through its operations, and the financing gap, are examined.
- Choice of route: A bilateral agreement, a multilateral protocol, financial restructuring, composition with creditors (konkordato), restructuring by settlement or liquidation are compared.
- Offer and financial model: Maturity, source of payment, security, new money, capital and asset transactions are planned.
- Negotiation with creditors: Information sharing, standstill, the offer, objections and common conditions are managed.
- Filing or contract: The documents of the chosen route are completed, and the decisions and authorizations are obtained.
- Protection and implementation: The moratorium or the contract provisions are applied to enforcement proceedings, bank accounts and business relationships.
- Approval and binding effect: The voting, confirmation, signature, registration and notification steps are completed.
- Performance and exit: Payments, new debts, deviations from the plan and closing conditions are monitored regularly.
Legal Work That Can Be Carried Out on This Subject
Legal Preparation Before the Composition
Before filing, we check that the books and records are up to date, the creditor list, enforcement proceedings, security, lawsuits, asset values, related-party transactions, cash flow and the assumptions of the plan.
We plan which payments will continue, which may require the permission of the commissioner or the court, the critical contracts and the effect of the filing statement on the parties. To speed up the filing, no unverified record or backdated decision is used.
Composition Request, Jurisdiction and Venue
The debtor’s right to request a composition, whether it is subject to bankruptcy, the information on its domicile or headquarters and the competent commercial court of first instance are determined. The conditions under which a creditor entitled to request bankruptcy may ask for a composition are examined separately.
The filing petition explains the payment difficulty, the plan, the documents, the need for legal protection and the measures requested. For each debtor in the same group of companies, the party, jurisdiction, debt and plan conditions are shown separately.
Legal Design of the Preliminary Composition Plan
The plan explains at what rate, in what maturity and from what source the debts will be paid; how operations will continue; and the role of capital, credit, asset sales, collections and cost measures.
The offer must be comparable to what creditors would be likely to recover in bankruptcy, and it must show the position of privileged or secured claims correctly. The language of the plan is kept consistent with the financial model and the company’s actual practice.
Filing Documents under Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İİK) Art. 286
The preliminary composition plan, the documents showing the state of the assets, the creditor and claims list, the bankruptcy comparison table, the financial statements, the information from the commercial books and the other documents required by the law are prepared and brought into agreement with each other.
It is not enough for a document merely to be in the file; its currency, source, date range and consistency with the financial model are checked. Missing or contradictory information creates a risk for the provisional moratorium and for the credibility of the process.
Coordinating the Audit Report Providing Reasonable Assurance
The report on the feasibility of the offer in the preliminary composition plan is prepared by an independent audit firm authorized by the Public Oversight Authority (KGK), within the current legislation and the decisions of the Board.
The legal team coordinates the full and consistent transfer to the auditor of the contracts, lawsuits, enforcement proceedings, security, management decisions and legal assumptions. The authority and competence requirements of the audit team are verified as of the filing date under the current KGK rules.
Expense Advance and Filing Timetable
The composition expense advance, announcements, service of notices, the commissioner, the expert and other litigation expenses are calculated under the annual tariff and court practice. Because the amounts may change every year, no fixed figure is published on the page.
Document production, independent audit, valuation, the court filing and cash protection decisions are planned on a single timetable. Paying the expense advance does not cure missing documents or an unworkable plan.
Currency of Documents and the Limit of the Service
The preliminary plan, the creditor list, the financial statements, the comparison table and the audit report must confirm one another. The document and audit conditions are completed under İİK Art. 286, the relevant regulation and the KGK rules as of the filing date. The attorney’s legal review does not replace the independent audit report.
Fees and litigation expenses
The attorney’s fee is separate from audit, valuation, commissioner, announcement, service and court expenses. A cost study is prepared according to the current expense advance tariff and the characteristics of the file. Filing an application does not mean that a moratorium or confirmation will be obtained.
Document regulation of May 13, 2026
The financial reporting framework is separated according to the status of the debtor: for a debtor subject to independent audit, the Turkish Accounting Standards it applies; for a legal-entity merchant not subject to independent audit, BOBİ FRS (the Financial Reporting Standard for Large and Medium-Sized Entities); for other debtors, the Tax Procedure Law and the relevant legislation. Two copies of the audit report providing reasonable assurance are expected as an annex to the filing. The audit firm’s obligation to notify the contract and the report to the KGK within thirty days at the latest from the date of signature must not be confused with the debtor’s period for notifying claims.
In calculating expenses, the tariff dated August 26, 2026 and the later amendments in force on the filing date are checked; because of the number of creditors and the commissioner’s expenses, there is no single fixed filing fee.
Supplementary Questions
Who can request a composition?
A debtor that cannot pay its debts when due, or that is at risk of not being able to, may request a composition. Any creditor entitled to request bankruptcy may also, by a reasoned petition, request that composition proceedings be started in respect of the debtor; the document and expense arrangements apply in a special way in that case.
Is composition only for companies?
No. İİK Art. 285 gives the debtor the possibility to apply regardless of whether it is subject to bankruptcy. Even so, jurisdiction, venue, documents, operations and the possible consequences of bankruptcy are not the same for an individual, a merchant, a capital company and a cooperative.