In a previous article, 'In case of emergency: Using emergency power provisions to appoint a voluntary administrator' we discussed the use of emergency powers in a company’s constitution to appoint a voluntary administrator to a company, as well as the use of court assistance to cure defects in an appointment.

High Court's Landmark Decisions Clarify the Position for Creditors and Liquidators in Insolvency Proceedings

Navigating cross-border bankruptcy: Gilbert + Tobin has assisted in the recognition of foreign bankruptcy proceedings in Australia, acting for the trustees in bankruptcy in a successful application to recognise Singaporean bankruptcy proceedings.

Background

When a company becomes financially distressed, directors are often required to act quickly and decisively. However, directors may at the same time find themselves held back by the requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the “Corporations Act”) or their company constitution.

What is now known as the ‘ipso facto regime’ was introduced by the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Enterprise Incentives No. 2) Act 2017 in September 2017, which inserted a number of provisions that provided for a stay on the exercise of certain ipso facto contractual rights in the context of corporate restructuring and insolvency procedures.

What is an ipso facto clause?

Corporate Australia is bracing for the long-awaited surge in insolvencies. As Australia’s largest creditor and, according to creditor reporting bureau Creditor Watch, responsible for the greatest number of company windups prior to the pandemic in 2019, the ATO can fairly be described as an influential, if not dominant, player in the restructuring and turnaround space and in corporate Australia more broadly.

The ATO effect

Contents:

This article was first published by the Financier World Wide.

Largely due to the worldwide economic turmoil caused by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, recent years have seen global business disruption on a grand scale – a scorched corporate landscape ripe for distressed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practitioners to pick over.

Trends in traditional M&A activity

This 2022 review provides an overview of recent Australian Restructuring and Insolvency activity along with the laws, their application and recent trends and development in restructuring and insolvency activity.

Chapters:

On 23 March 2020, in response to the increasing economic threat that the Coronavirus poses, the Commonwealth Government introduced the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020 (Economic Response Bill). The Economic Response Bill proposes various amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Act), with the objective of providing temporary relief for financially distressed businesses and promoting business continuity in the current climate.