On 5 October 2022, the UK Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the case of BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA & Ors [2022] UKSC 25. This judgment arose from an appeal brought by BTI 2014 LLC against a decision of the English Court of Appeal in 2019.
The full strength of the economic headwinds facing the UK economy is not yet clear, but a helpful recent report by insolvency and restructuring adviser Begbies Traynor provided some useful numbers around the attitudes of businesses.
The common law imposes on all company officers (directors and secretaries), fiduciary duties and a duty of skill, care and diligence. The Companies Act 1981 (the "Act") codifies certain of the common law duties (but is not exhaustive), such that officers' duties are governed by both common law and statute.
The impact of Covid-19 is clearly the big talking point for 2022, with several questions arising: will new variants emerge, what steps will governments take to limit the spread, and what impact will it have on industries? To date, enforcement actions, insolvencies and restructurings have been relatively light, but with new restructuring legislation reforms on the horizon, and creditors starting to ramp up speed to enforcement, it appears likely that there will be an increase in winding up and cross-border restructuring work.
John Wasty, John Riihiluoma, Lalita Vaswani and Sam Riihiluoma, Appleby
This is an extract from the 2022 edition of GRR's the Americas Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
Today 'soft touch' provisional liquidation is one of the most commonly deployed tools for facilitating a restructuring of offshore incorporated companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore. However, when soft touch provisional liquidation was first developed by the Bermuda Court for this purpose, it was regarded as a tool of last resort.
Stephen John Hunt v Transworld Payment Solutions U.K. Limited (in liquidation) [2020] SC (Bda) 14 Com The Bermuda Supreme Court has clarified the rules for granting common law recognition and assistance to foreign insolvency office holders following the landmark competing Privy Council decisions of Singularis Holdings Ltd v Price Waterhouse Coopers [2014] UKPC 36 and Cambridge Gas Transportation Corporation v Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (of Navigator Holding PLC and others) [2006] UKPC 26.
John Wasty, John Riihiluoma, Lalita Vaswani and Sam Riihiluoma, Appleby
This is an extract from the 2021 edition of GRR's The Americas Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
It is usually held that Bermuda insolvency law follows English insolvency law, so far as possible, applying the same principles that would have applied immediately before the introduction of the English Insolvency Act in 1986. That is a fair summary, but it does not tell the whole story.
In Short
The Situation: For cross-border insolvency matters, parties increasingly depend on court-approved protocols to assist in the management of complex insolvencies involving a debtor or debtors whose assets, liabilities, or operations span international borders.
The Action: Courts in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and some U.S. bankruptcy districts have implemented Guidelines for Communication and Cooperation between Courts in Cross-Border Insolvency Matters.