The administrators of collapsed forex currency broker Alpari (UK) have announced that the creditors’ meeting will be held on 12 March. See the link below for further details.
An action has successfully been brought by the administrators of Questway Limited, Oceancrown Limited and Loanwell Limited (all in administration) against Stonegale Limited and Norman Ralph Pelosi (the sole shareholder and director of Stonegale Limited) to reduce alienations of properties in Glasgow, under s.242(1) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “Insolvency Act”).
A new Statement of Insolvency Practice (SIP16) is expected to be published in March 2015, aimed at improving the framework and operation of pre-pack administrations. This follows the Graham Review, and its report published in June 2014. In this article, we explore the existing pre-pack structure, its shortcomings and how the changes expected might affect insolvency practitioners and their insurers.
Background
Health Warning: This Blog may not be historically accurate
If, like me, you have recently attended one of the many St Patrick’s Day parades that have taken place across the UK and worldwide, you are no doubt acutely aware that St Patrick was a polyester clad leprechaun with a penchant for drinking Guinness and turning rivers green. However, it may come as a shock to learn that St Patrick was also a dyed-in-the-wool insolvency litigator.
Below are the 6 key points that you need to consider when health and safety issues arise following an appointment to an insolvent company.
1. What is the main legislation covering this area?
There are two distinct areas dealt with by detailed but separate legislation.
The hotels sector has suffered in the recession and as an asset class, hotels are capital intensive operations. They are also susceptible to volatile economic conditions, as consumer and corporate expenditure on hotels is generally viewed as a discretionary expense.
HMA structure
There are various ways in which the corporate ownership of a hotel can be structured. This note will concentrate on one of the most common structures in the hotel industry – the hotel management agreement (“HMA”).
The insolvency trade body R3 have issued a useful guide to the insolvency process for creditors. The guide can be found here.
A frequent criticism is that the insolvency process (and indeed insolvency practitioners) do not do enough to engage with creditors. Partly this will be because of creditor apathy (who wants to throw good time after bad money?) but partly it is because creditors do not see the insolvency process as being structured to assist them.
As part of the Scottish Government’s aim of introducing a “Financial Health Service” in Scotland, the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act 2014 will this year bring into effect some of the widest reaching changes to the law on personal insolvency seen in the last five years. We set out below a brief guide to the main changes, as follows.
1) Business DAS – introduced in December 2014
On Thursday 26th February, the Ministry of Justice announced that the insolvency exemption to sections 44 and 46 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (‘LASPO’) will continue for the time being, having been scheduled to come to an end in April 2015.
The insolvency exemption allows office holders in insolvency procedures to continue to recover from a losing party:
In a High Court decision this week it was held that there is no general duty on a solicitor to check the credit status of the seller in a conveyancing transaction unless expressly instructed.
The judgment also provides a useful analysis of the extent to which a solicitor should advise a client regarding the risks of a particular transaction generally, not just in the context of conveyancing.
Facts