Josefine Boehm

• Following no strict legal or institutional definition, restructurings relate to renegotiations of within the firm - as a nexus of contracts - combined agreements. This cumulative dissertation focuses on renegotiations that are triggered by financial distress and that are conducted with current or potential debt- and shareholders. In form of a literature review, the first manuscript systematizes the bargaining dynamics between existing capital providers and their influence on the choice for in- or out-of-court firm reorganizations in Germany and the United States. How the renegotiations of existing payment obligations are reflected in financial instruments accounting according to the IFRS and the capital structure of the distressed firm is further elaborated in a case-based instructional resource. The second part of the dissertation discusses restructurings through the acquisition of the distressed target. Specifically, the phenomenon of negative goodwill is studied that arises in business combinations with acquisition costs that are lower than the fair value of the targets’ net assets. For the exemplary case of Germany, manuscripts three and four examine the frequency, materiality and reasons for the by the IASB as anomalous acclaimed phenomenon together with iestors’ reactions to such transactions._x000D_ Keywords: Restructuring, financial distress, capital structure, IFRS, business combinations