The interesting times of the last 14 months were preceded by the interesting times of the financial crisis of 2008/2009. The reverberations of that financial crisis had a profound effect upon governments’ presumptions as to the financial stability of economies generally but also the financial stability of sectors such as financial services.

This article provides for the insolvency law for the companies who are facing losses and are opting for deceleration of insolvency during the pandemic. Covid -19 pandemic has not only disturbed the financial conditions of an individual but has skeptically burdened the companies around the world.

On 22 October 2020, the UAE government made various changes to the UAE Bankruptcy Law*, including the concept of Emergency Financial Crisis (EFC). Subsequently, on 10 January 2021, the UAE Cabinet declared the existence of an EFC in the UAE. In this article, Partners Michael Morris and Keith Hutchison explore how this declaration may impact on debtors and creditors.

Emergency Financial Crisis

One of the key changes implemented was a power given to the UAE Cabinet to declare an EFC. An EFC is defined as:

In a follow-up action to its 2020 amendment to the 2016 Corporate Bankruptcy Law (that defined an Emergency Financial Crisis as “A general situation that affects trade or investment in the country, such as a pandemic, natural or environmental disaster, war, etc.”) the UAE Cabinet has now officially declared that an Emergency Financial Crisis shall be deemed to exist during the period from 1 April 2020 until 31 July 2021 due to COVID-19 with various implications for businesses distressed as a result of the pandemic.

Further to our previous update, the UAE Cabinet has announced the existence of an Emergency Financial Crisis through the Official Gazette dated 31 January 2021.

It is quite obvious that coronavirus has somewhat brought the economy to a halt for a certain time and the government across countries are trying every bit possible to revive it. COVID-19 has affected all organizations and economies as apparent from the steep decrease in demand and supply of products, social distancing and termination of commercial contracts due to failure in performing contractual obligations.

COVID-19 has impacted all businesses and economies around the globe with a precipitous decline in demand and supply as a result of quarantine orders, business closures, and social distancing. International Monetary Fund research suggests that the world economy may shrink (in the year 2020) by 3% with the trade volume falling by 11% and the oil prices by 42% (World Economic Outlook, April 2020: The Great Lockdown). In these challenging circumstances and with significant level of debt, many companies are at the onset of insolvency.

As a director or manager of a UAE company, you will know that like individuals, companies experience times of good health and occasional periods of sickness.

In this note, we focus on you, as directors (which includes managers) of “onshore” limited liability companies (“LLCs”), noting of course that the rules may also apply to certain free zone entities as well. We want you as directors to be certain of your duties and responsibilities in the good times but also sure of the actions you should or could take if things go wrong for your company, and financial difficulties arise.

In the wake of the high profile collapse of the private equity firm Abraaj Capital, the Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”) updated its insolvency regime with the introduction on June 13, 2019 of the new DIFC Insolvency Law (Law No.1 of 2019) (the “DIFC Insolvency Law”).

Stephenson Harwood’s Middle East team provide top tips on how to quickly recover debt in the UAE.

The strategy we set out in this bulletin is intended to crystallise the debt in the eyes of the national courts of the UAE making recovery of the debt quicker than it otherwise might be.

Issue letters of demand