This column discusses the recent bankruptcy filings of Ritz Camera and Image and Dewey & LeBoeuf, two of the more recent high-profile entities to file for bankruptcy. The column discusses why Ritz and Dewey filed, and how they hope to use the bankruptcy process to achieve their respective goals—restructure in the case of Ritz, and liquidate in the case of Dewey. The column also updates readers on Sbarro’s successful emergence from bankruptcy and how it used the bankruptcy process to reorganize its business and restructure its balance sheet.

In Global Distressed Alpha Fund I Limited Partnership v PT Bakrie Investindo1 (“Bakrie”) the facts were as follows: • The Defendant (“Investindo”) was and is an Indonesian entity and part of the Bakrie Group, which owned and controlled by the Bakrie family. • Investindo wished to raise finance by the issue of $50m 9.625% guaranteed notes (the “Notes”), which it did via a Dutch SPV in 1996 pursuant to a Fiscal Agency Agreement (the “FAA”). The Notes were due to mature in 1999 and repayment was guaranteed by Investindo under a Deed of Guarantee.

BUDDLE FINDLAY

 

June 2012

Legal update on Insolvency Law.

Spring 2012

Bankruptcy Client Alert
August 2, 2012

August 2: Jefferson County: Court Rejects

The Court of Appeal has recently re-affirmed the circumstances in which the English Court will pierce the corporate veil. In doing so, however, it overturned a ground-breaking Commercial Court decision from 2011, in which the Commercial Court held that an individual who was the “puppeteer” behind a “puppet” company could be treated as being simultaneously, contractually liable for the contracts of the puppet company. This alert details the recent changes.

Portuguese waiter Gonçalo Alexandre Costa Ribeiro has a personal take on Europe's North-South divide, The Wall Street Journal reported. "The Northern Europeans tip more than the Southern Europeans," says Mr. Ribeiro, 22 years old, who works at a sushi restaurant in Vilamoura, a beach resort in Portugal's Algarve region. "I guess it's cultural, but also has to do with the economic situation of the two." Though Finland and Portugal share a currency, their divergent economic outlooks reflect the divide between the euro-zone's strongest and weakest members.

ECB head Mario Draghi wants to save the euro at all costs. But the pledge has created discord within the bank's governing council. Many oppose plans to buy up sovereign bonds from troubled euro-zone member states, fearing it could just make things worse, Spiegel Online reported in an analysis. It was an illustrious meeting that British Prime Minister David Cameron was hosting on the evening before the opening of the Olympic Games in London.

It was odd that during an Oireachtas committee’s questioning of Permanent TSB chief executive Jeremy Masding, for three hours last week, that the bank’s €4 billion bailout with public money was only mentioned twice. One reference came from Independent TD Stephen Donnelly, a member of the Oireachtas finance committee: “The people of Ireland made €4 billion available to this same institution as part of the recapitalisation and Mr Masding has admitted that not one euro of that amount has been forgiven for borrowers.