Situation before Brexit
Currently, a UK court’s decision to open insolvency proceedings, and the subsequent proceedings, are automatically recognised under Articles 16 and 17 of the European Insolvency Regulation.
Recognition of insolvency proceedings
After Brexit, it is most likely that the UK will be treated as a non-Member State (unless the UK reaches any special agreement with the EU).
The European Commission ("Commission") has released a consultation paper to evaluate the merits of introducing measures to support secondary markets for distressed debt and the development of a new, contractual-based loan security obligation.
Consultation
Introduction The number of financial institutions that have announced the relocation of their EU headquarters from the UK to Germany has increased during the last weeks. In the meantime, some of the largest US and Asian institutions have confirmed their plans to expand their operations in Germany, and we expect others to follow soon. How can we assist? This briefing shall provide you with an overview of a number of issues that may be of interest for your decision to expand your operations in Germany.
The CJEU reviews the conflicts that arise in the defence provided under Article 13 Regulation No 1346/2000 when Liquidators of an Italian company attempt to set aside payments claimed to otherwise be permissible under English law.
Scope
The recast EIR continues to apply to all European member states other than Denmark and has been extended in scope to new categories of proceedings, including rehabilitation proceedings, which are set out in annex A. The emphasis remains on collective proceedings and, consequently, the UK’s receivership and administrative receivership regimes remain outside the scope of the recast regulation.
Cross-border insolvency of multinational groups
WGV aims to agree a set of key principles and draft text for a regime to address crossborder insolvency in the context of enterprise groups (defined widely to mean any entity, regardless of its legal form, that is engaged in economic activities and may be governed by insolvency law). This has started to take a form most suited to a stand-alone supplement to the Model Law. The Group’s secretariat produced a draft legislative text, incorporating three principles agreed by WGV. The three principles are:
The ACT Borrower's Guide to the LMA's Investment Grade Agreements
Produced by
The ACT Borrower's Guide to the LMA's Investment Grade Agreements
produced by Slaughter and May 5th Edition 1 September 2017
This guide has been produced for the ACT by Slaughter and May to provide assistance to corporate treasurers reviewing draft facility agreements based on the LMA documentation for investment grade borrowers.
/ The ACT Borrower's Guide
The ACT Borrower's Guide /
Introduction1
UK lawyers and restructuring professionals have been highlighting their concerns for British business and Financial Markets if the Government is unable to negotiate a bespoke treaty between the UK and the EU to preserve the mutual and reciprocal recognition provisions written into the Recast EU Insolvency Regulation (Recast EIR) and the Recast Brussels Regulation (the Judgements Regulation) after Brexit in 2019.
In a recent judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed the extent to which an English law governed contract can be subject to the transaction avoidance provisions of the insolvency law of other another member state if one of the counterparties enters into insolvency in that member state (eg Italy): Vinyls Italia SpA v Mediterranea di Navigazione SpA C-54/16 (8 June 2017).
1. Introduction
The new Regulation follows on the path of Regulation No. 1346/2000, representing the last step of a process which has been started years ago. European Union authorities resorted also to other means in this direction: aside to the Regulation, a Recommendation has been issued in 2014, inviting Member States to adopt internal procedures more favourable to restructuring (rather than liquidating) distressed businesses.