On 17 October 2012, Nine Entertainment announced that it had reached an agreement with representatives of its senior and junior lenders with respect to a restructuring of its financing arrangements. Prior to the announcement, recent business press had been dominated by reports of Nine Entertainment's potential insolvency.

Key Points: The fact that you're a very big company doesn't mean you needn't follow the legal rules for the execution of documents.

Background

A large insurance company claimed to be a creditor of Ungul, a property developer. Ungul was in voluntary administration.

A meeting of Ungul's creditors was called for 11 June. The insurance company's solicitors contacted the administrator and said that:

The abolition of the "peak indebtedness" rule will complicate liquidators' tasks, not least its adverse effect on pursuing preferences where it's unclear what forms the single transaction.

The equitable doctrine of marshalling can protect the security interests of subordinate secured creditors when a debtor becomes insolvent.

Marshalling is a neglected tool in the insolvency toolbox, but it can play an important role in protecting the security interests of subordinate secured creditors.

When faced with multiple class action threats, there is little downside in a company giving consideration to a creditors’ scheme of arrangement to achieve a quicker and cheaper resolution of the underlying claims.

In handing over any documents in litigation or Court process, you must assess whether or not the documents have tax relevance.

Judge Chapman’s judgment is obviously a welcome development for participants in the structured capital markets, particularly those who transact regularly with US counterparties.

Key Points:

A section 439A report must contain all material information which is known or reasonably ascertainable by administrators.

The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency is designed to supplement States' insolvency laws with a framework to address cross-border insolvency proceedings.

The proposed scaling back of directors' liability provisions is good news for insolvency practitioners.

In good news for insolvency practitioners, the NSW Government formally adopted the Council of Australian Governments guidelines on "Personal Liability for Corporate Fault" as NSW policy on 31 July 2012 .

What are the "Personal Liability for Corporate Fault" guidelines?