Following our previous article on the Canadian case of Qualex-Landmark Towers Inc v 12-10 Capital Corp, there has been an application to appeal to Alberta’s highest court with several intervener applications. Beale & Co provides an update and further commentary on the next chapter of this environmental case.

The past few weeks have brought more news stories of doom and gloom from the hospitality sector with statistics showing that the number of insolvencies is at an all-time high. Data published by UHY Hacker Young shows the number of pub and bar insolvencies increased from 438 to 725 over the last year. Insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor has recently reported that higher interest rates are pushing an increasing number of companies into insolvency.

On the 29 November 2023, the Gambling Commission (“GC”) released its second set of consultations on the Gambling White Paper which covers five key areas: 

There have been many reported cases in the bankruptcies of Mr and Mrs Brake (the “Brakes”) including the recent case of Patley Wood Farm LLP v Kicks [2023] EWCA Civ 901 where the Court of Appeal considered an application under s303 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “IA 1986”) against a decision of the trustees in bankruptcy of the Brakes (the “Trustees”).

In the final statistics release of this year, the Insolvency Service confirmed that there were 2,466 registered company insolvencies in November 2023 (the December figures will be released early in 2024). Not only was this 21% higher than in the previous November, but 7% higher than the figures in October 2023.

The company insolvencies in November 2023 included:

Go-To Guide:

The Consumer Duty is one of the most significant pieces of regulation to land in the financial services industry for some time and represents a major shift in how firms will need to view customer outcomes and proactively address harm in the retail market. For Insolvency Practitioners (IPs) appointed over a regulated firm that has products within the scope of the duty, this will form part of the regulatory obligations with which the firm (and the IP) will need to ensure compliance.

2023 Restructuring & Insolvency Year in Review Year starts with fears of banking collapse contagion State-backed rescue deal for Credit Suisse announced 10 March 19 March Silicon Valley Bank, centred in California and focussed on funding venture capital and startups, was shut down by its local regulator on 10 March 2023 with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation appointed as receiver and the UK bank was sold to HSBC over the course of a weekend. Crypto-exposed Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank both followed suit – all within the span of five days.

Outcome of the UK government's market consultation and the likely shape and impact of the proposed regime

The Supreme Court’s judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and ors^[1] (“Sequana”) is a key decision on the law surrounding directors’ duties.

The High Court was required to consider the Supreme Court’s Sequana judgment in Hunt v Singh (below).

What did we learn from Sequana?