Australian DOCAs versus UK pre-packs and CVAs: sifting through the ashes of comparative dividend returns

This article is something of a brief extension of recent research into deeds of company arrangement (DOCAs) under Pt 5.3A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), conducted with the support of the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association’s (ARITA’s) Terry Taylor Scholarship (TTS). The findings of that research (which comprised a sample review of DOCAs) are available online in a comprehensive report (TTS DOCA Report) and are also summarised in a recent article in ARITA’s Australian Insolvency Journal. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings of that research (namely, the dividend outcomes delivered by the sampled Australian DOCAs) in a manner that is consistent with reports that have recently emerged from similar research conducted in the United Kingdom. In so doing, a basic comparison can be made of the performance of Australian DOCAs against analogous UK procedures.