Article 617 — Opening of Preventive Restructuring Proceedings

1/ Preventive restructuring proceedings shall be available upon the sole application of a debtor, which is not yet in cessation of payments or has been in cessation of payments for less than forty-five days and faces actual or foreseeable economic or financial difficulties. 2/ The debtor shall provide the bankruptcy Court with its latest financial statements, a memorandum outlining the circumstances of its financial difficulties and means to resolve them, as well as cash-flow projections; The Court may order the debtor to provide any further documentation and information it deems necessary and may order third parties such as banks or tax authorities to provide them. 3/ Without prejudice to the mandatory laws of Ethiopia, restructuring may include changing the composition, conditions or structure of a debtor's assets and liabilities or any other part of the debtor's capital structure or sales of assets or parts of the business or the whole business as a going-concern, as well as any necessary operational changes, or a combination of those elements.