Hylands Assists National Brands to Set Sail Again - Huiyuan Food Restructuring Plan Approved by Ruling

Established in 1994, Huiyuan Food is a well-known brand in the juice industry in China, known as the "National Beverage" and "Juice King", and is a shared memory of all Chinese people. However, as impacted by cross-border acquisitions, the development of Huiyuan Food has been hindered, which, coupled with adverse factors such as market cycles, related party debt defaults and the impact of the pandemic, has resulted in an increasingly challenging production and operating environment for Huiyuan Food in recent years, thereby weakening its ability to continue operating and exposing it to a serious debt crisis. 

In 2020, the creditors filed an application for bankruptcy reorganization of Huiyuan Food with Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court on the grounds that Huiyuan Food was unable to settle its debts as they fell due and its assets were insufficient to settle all of its debts. Subsequently, Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court decided to initiate pre-restructuring of Huiyuan Food and appointed Hylands as the provisional administrator of the pre-reorganization. Upon adequate investigation to prove that Huiyuan Food was eligible for reorganization and had reorganization values, on July 16, 2021, Huiyuan Food was officially ruled to proceed with the reorganization process. During the period in which the Firm served as the (provisional) administrator, it has diligently performed its duties as the administrator with a high sense of responsibility and a sense of mission to safeguard the national brand, and has actively and efficiently performed various tasks. The Firm has comprehensively surveyed the assets and liabilities of the Company, analyzed the historical reasons for the debt crisis, demonstrated the values of corporate restructuring, publicly recruited investors, and organized several rounds of comprehensive consultations on the restructuring plan, and finally formulated a draft restructuring plan combining in-court restructuring and out-of-court reorganization based on actual conditions of Huiyuan Food, laying a solid foundation for completely solving the debt crisis of Huiyuan Food. 

The case was undertaken by an efficient and professional bankruptcy service team led by Liping QIN, Jiehua RUI and Yu XU, in accordance with market-oriented and law-based principles throughout the pre-reorganization and reorganization period. The rights to information, participation and voting of creditors, debtors, investors and contributors have been fully guaranteed in the process of property investigation, claim filing and examination, operation management and supervision, investor recruitment, etc. Finally, the draft reorganization plan of the case was highly recognized by all parties, making the reorganization process of the case a complete success. 

In the process of pre-reorganization and reorganization of the case, the Bankruptcy Court of Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People' s Court has attached great importance to the case and provided professional guidance and effective supervision to the performance of the administrator. The creditors, represented by the Financial Debt Committee, have placed a high degree of trust and support on the work of the administrator, and both the debtors and the staff appointed by the administrator have fulfilled their duties and responsibilities and actively cooperated with the work of the administrator. To date, the successful reorganization of Huiyuan Food is the fruit of the concerted efforts of all parties, and the administrator hereby expresses its sincere gratitude to all parties for their support.