What the Act introduces
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026, Act No. 6 of 2026, enacted on 6 April 2026, brings four changes that matter to a foreign industrial acquirer.
A group insolvency regime. A new chapter provides for the coordination of proceedings across several entities of the same group, with a single filing before the National Company Law Tribunal, a joint committee of creditors and a common insolvency professional. For an acquirer this is the most consequential change of all: it makes it possible to acquire a coherent industrial perimeter rather than an orphaned entity whose support functions and assets are scattered across affiliates. Fragmentation of the perimeter has been the single largest destroyer of value in Indian insolvency acquisitions to date.
A cross-border insolvency basis. A new section aligned on the UNCITRAL model law permits recognition of foreign proceedings and cooperation with foreign courts.
A creditor-initiated process with a 150-day resolution target and a debtor-in-possession model, designed to address operating failures earlier and faster.
Protection of authorisations, licences and permits attached to the debtor, which can no longer be suspended or withdrawn solely on account of pre-existing liabilities dealt with in the resolution plan. For an industrial buyer this is a first-order protection: the licence you are buying survives the transaction.
This is not a nascent market
It is worth establishing the scale before discussing the caveats. As at the end of March 2026, the framework had accumulated 8,987 admitted resolution proceedings since 2016 and 1,419 debtors resolved through an approved plan, realising in the region of ₹4.32 lakh crore for creditors, with recoveries above 116% of liquidation value and above 94% of fair value.
That is a mature market with a decade of case law and a professional infrastructure. What is remarkable is not its size but its composition: European acquirers have essentially not participated in it.
What the Act does not change
Four limitations deserve to be stated as plainly as the improvements, because a client told only the good half will make a bad decision.
The key provisions are enabling, not operative. Both the group and cross-border regimes defer to rules and regulations to be notified separately by the central government and the regulator. Until those instruments are published, a foreign acquirer remains in a zone of procedural uncertainty, the entitlement exists, the mechanism does not yet.
Real timelines still exceed statutory ones. The gap between the statutory calendar and the observed calendar before the tribunals remains the principal execution risk, and no amendment closes it by itself.
Information asymmetry still runs against the foreigner. Promoter disputes, uncertainties of land title, local employment liabilities and family governance practices remain difficult to assess from a distance. This is the argument for presence on the ground, not for a better data room.
The look-back period for avoidable transactions has been extended, which increases rather than reduces the diligence burden on an acquirer over the two years preceding the opening.
The position we take with clients
Our doctrine on this is explicit, and we put it in writing in every deliverable. We do not sell a European client an acquisition under the insolvency framework as though the framework were settled.
The commercial conversation is about joint ventures and the recapitalisation of companies in difficulty outside any formal procedure, both practicable today, both squarely within our competence. The insolvency route is positioned as a complementary path whose accessibility depends on implementing regulations still to come.
Presenting it the other way round would expose a client to a real disappointment and us to a legitimate complaint about the quality of our advice. There is no version of this business in which that trade is worth making.
What to watch
Three markers will tell you when the position should change: publication of the implementing rules for the group and cross-border regimes; the first resolutions completed under the creditor-initiated process, with their actual rather than statutory durations; and the first plan approved in favour of a European industrial acquirer. Until then, the framework is worth preparing for and not yet worth promising.
Key takeaways
- Enacted 6 April 2026: group insolvency, a cross-border basis, a creditor-initiated process, and protected licences.
- Group insolvency is the decisive change, it allows acquisition of a coherent perimeter rather than an orphaned entity.
- The framework is mature: 8,987 admitted proceedings, 1,419 resolved, recoveries above 116% of liquidation value.
- But the key provisions are enabling, not operative, and await implementing regulations.
- Our doctrine: sell joint ventures and out-of-court recapitalisation today; prepare the insolvency route, do not promise it.
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