In one of the most highly anticipated judgments in the European restructuring market in recent years, on 23 January 2024, the English Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s decision sanctioning the Adler restructuring plan.1
BTI 2014 LLC (Appellant) v Sequana SA and Others (Respondents)
Summary
The UK Supreme Court has, for the first time, considered the existence, content and engagement of an obligation on directors to take into account the interests of creditors when a company becomes, or is on the cusp of becoming, insolvent (otherwise known as the “creditor duty”).
On 30 June 2022, the English court handed down judgment and made a winding-up order in respect of Galapagos S.A., marking an important milestone in an almost three-year cross-border insolvency battle involving the English, German and European courts.
The decision also provides helpful guidance on the application of the Recast European Insolvency Regulation post-Brexit, as well as the extent to which pre-Brexit jurisprudence should still be considered retained in, or relevant to, English law.
Galapagos: The Facts
Payment Orders were originally introduced in the CPC as a fast track route for creditors holding a financial instrument, such as a letter of credit or cheque, to obtain judgment against their debtor for what is a simple and indisputable debt. Payment Orders were rarely issued by the onshore UAE courts. In 2018, Cabinet Resolution No 57 of 2018 (the “2018 Cabinet Resolution”) significantly expanded the scope of application of Payment Orders by extending them to all admitted debts rather than simply those arising out of financial instruments only.