Landlords of New Look stores have failed in their challenge to a CVA which wrote off rent arrears and imposed turnover rents on hundreds of stores.

Like so many high street fashion retailers New Look was already in a precarious position before the pandemic hit. When its turnover was reduced to nil overnight it projected it would run out of cash without help.

The judgment in the case of Belmont Park Investments Pty Limited v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Limited and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc (UKSC 2009/0222), which began to be heard by the UK Supreme Court on March 1, 2011,1 was handed down on July 27, 2011. The case concerns the enforceability of so-called “flip clauses,” which provide that payment obligations owed to different creditors, in this case the swap counterparty and the noteholders, “flip” in priority following a counterparty bankruptcy.