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After the dramatic 2007 takeover of the country's largest bank, ABN Amro, the Belgian acquirer Fortis itself hit trouble this year, which forced the Dutch state to step in and take over Fortis' position in the consortium. When the prestigious ING Bank, long considered as unshakable, came to the brink of collapse, confidence in the Dutch banking market reached an all-time low....

After the dramatic 2007 takeover of the country's largest bank, ABN Amro, the Belgian acquirer Fortis itself hit trouble this year, which forced the Dutch state to step in and take over Fortis' position in the consortium. When the prestigious ING Bank, long considered as unshakable, came to the brink of collapse, confidence in the Dutch banking market reached an all-time low. "The market turned 180 degrees," says one lawyer. "The big shots used to be ING and ABN Amro, now Rabobank is the bank."

Obtaining credit had never been so difficult, and many companies got into trouble arranging their financings. "The market is very quiet at the moment," says one senior banking lawyer. "I am doing a couple of nice restructuring cases. That is where the work is now."

The government has created a fund for economically sound companies in order to survive since banks are very reluctant to finance new projects and investments. Firms can only hold their breath and hope a revival of the market will come sooner than later.

However it's not all doom and gloom, with partners forecasting a return to more reasonable lending terms once the benefits from the government-backed funding start to trickle through. "I am not that negative. We hope to see an increase after the summer," says one partner.

Not surprisingly, the capital markets in the Netherlands have been hit hard in the last twelve months by the financial crisis. "Although it is luckily a different story than the mergers and acquisitions market, and rights issues still bring in some work, but it has become much more difficult," says one senior lawyer....

Not surprisingly, the capital markets in the Netherlands have been hit hard in the last twelve months by the financial crisis. "Although it is luckily a different story than the mergers and acquisitions market, and rights issues still bring in some work, but it has become much more difficult," says one senior lawyer. "At the moment it is very quiet."

The international firms turn out to be the worst victims of the credit crunch. Huge teams were hired in the last couple of years to meet the continuous demand. The sky was the limit, until the economic storm started to rage through the Dutch market.

"At the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 companies stopped putting their companies on the stock exchange," says one partner. "One by one deals were delayed or cancelled." Foreign lenders and investors in particular stayed away, which resulted in less work for the big international firms as Dutch companies tend to be loyal to local law firms such as NautaDutilh, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, and Stibbe.

Some firms see the positive side: "Because of the crisis it is easy to get good people," says one senior partner. The partner adds: "And at the moment there is more supervision and regulations, new structures and new models with rating agencies, so in one or two years two we'll get a much healthier market back."

Some partners even believe that the Dutch market is slowly starting up again. "Some companies are already thinking about the stock exchange again," says one partner. "The market is picking up again, slowly."

The market has changed after the long, drawn-out acquisition of ABN Amro, with co-acquirer Fortis not financially strong enough to carry the costs of the takeover and was forced to seek state aid to stay afloat. The Dutch government had no other option but to save ABN Amro, effectively taking Fortis' place in the consortium of owners beside the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander....

The market has changed after the long, drawn-out acquisition of ABN Amro, with co-acquirer Fortis not financially strong enough to carry the costs of the takeover and was forced to seek state aid to stay afloat. The Dutch government had no other option but to save ABN Amro, effectively taking Fortis' place in the consortium of owners beside the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander. The state also bought the Dutch operations of Belgium's Fortis Bank, bringing the total bill to almost €17 billion.

Thanks to new legislation which came into force in the middle of 2007 regarding the liberalisation of the Dutch energy market, there were some interesting takeovers in the energy sector this year. Energy giant Nuon, one of the biggest electricity suppliers in The Netherlands, was taken over by the Sweden's Vattenfall, while Essent was taken over by the Germany's RWE for €8.2 billion.

But these are proving to be the exceptions rather than the rule, with the M&A process becoming increasingly difficult over the past year. "The huge boom is over," says one senior lawyer. "There is much less pure M&A work, and deals take much longer to close."

"The nature of the work has changed," says a senior lawyer, "it is all about insolvency and restructuring now." This change has forced many firms to reorganise their internal structures, with many M&A lawyers being deployed to work on restructuring and distressed M&A assignments. "In sections where it is very quiet we let people do restructurings. For the moment, there is no choice," admits one partner.

The project finance sector in the Netherlands has slowed significantly since the start of the credit crunch. The public-private partnership sector has dropped in particular, as less private companies have the funds to commit to projects....

The project finance sector in the Netherlands has slowed significantly since the start of the credit crunch. The public-private partnership sector has dropped in particular, as less private companies have the funds to commit to projects.

"It is bad but market is still moving," says a leading lawyer. "There are some ongoing projects and we firmly hope the government will try to give the economy a [financial] impulse with some new projects."

This process has already begun, with the A15 and A12 highway projects in an early stage and on-schedule. "The dialogue phase is expected to start this fall," says one lawyer.

The renovation of government buildings at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport has started and the financing of the second Coen tunnel was finalised in June 2008. "The development of the south of Amsterdam is an ongoing story," says one lawyer. "The municipality of Amsterdam is very keen to continue with this."

The energy sector has created plenty of opportunities for firms due to the Netherlands' relatively old infrastructure, with companies such as Abu Dhabi's TAQA and India's Tata said to be looking at the sector closely.

Restructuring and insolvency work has turned out to be the new booming business in the last twelve months. With the golden age of M&A over for now and the capital markets significantly less active than 12 months ago, the restructuring sector is more alive than ever....

Restructuring and insolvency work has turned out to be the new booming business in the last twelve months. With the golden age of M&A over for now and the capital markets significantly less active than 12 months ago, the restructuring sector is more alive than ever.

"We get a troubled company coming in here on a weekly basis, even big companies," says a senior insolvency lawyer. "We are very busy; the demand is growing by the day."

The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands increased enormously and is not slowing down yet. While the Dutch economy has not been hit as badly as its counterparts in the US and UK, many lawyers expect the worst is still to come. "I expect later on this year the real problems will begin. When the holiday money needs to be paid it gets tough for a lot of companies," says one senior partner.

As a result, firms are forced to move people around internally, with many idle M&A lawyers resprayed as restructuring lawyers – especially at the big firms where enormous M&A teams were formed during the boom years.

"We strengthened our [R&I] team with M&A people because we have much more work," says one lawyer. "Since September many more clients came in. It started with the downfall of Lehman Brothers. Suddenly we were confronted with the drying-up of liquidities and a more complicated bank industry."

Two years ago, the respected professor Sam Kortmann led a committee to prepare a new insolvency law. The draft was offered to parliament in 2008. "If it gets approved, it will be one of the biggest changes to the Bankruptcy Act for years," says one lawyer. "It can, however, take another couple of years before the act will be approved and comes into force."