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The Court of Appeal has provided much needed clarification of the test for validating certain transactions by companies that are subject to a winding-up petition, pursuant to Section 99 of the Companies Law (2020 Revision).

The Cayman Islands Court of Appeal has provided much needed clarification of the test for validating certain transactions by companies that are subject to a winding up petition, pursuant to section 99 of the Companies Law (2020 Revision) (the "Companies Law").

The Legal Issue of Principle

Domestic Procedures

What are the principal insolvency procedures for companies in your jurisdiction?

Liquidation: voluntary and official.

Cayman does not have an equivalent to the English concept of the company administration or to the Chapter 11 process in the United States.

Schemes of Arrangement/“Soft Touch Liquidations” allow the company to enter into an agreement with its shareholders and/or creditors.

One of the goals of the Bankruptcy Code is to provide a debtor with a fresh start. The discharge of prepetition debts at the conclusion of a bankruptcy case is one of the most important ways to attain this fresh start.  On May 16, 2016, the Supreme Court made it harder for debtors to obtain a fresh start by broadening an exception to discharge.

Earlier this year, we covered Judge Shelley Chapman’s ruling in the Sabine bankruptcy, permitting the Debtors to reject a handful of gathering and other midstream agreements. Previously, Judge Chapman permitted rejection on the grounds that the Debtors exercised their reasonable business judgement in doing so.

Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman held that Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. has satisfied the standards for rejection of several gathering and handling agreements between Sabine and its midstream counter-parties, Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering, LLC and HPIP Gonzales Holdings, LLC.

Part 5: Bankruptcy Issues for Secured Creditors

In the final installment of this series on the oil & gas industry, Orrick Restructuring Chair Ron D’Aversa and Restructuring Partner Doug Mintz survey the bankruptcy landscape for the oil & gas industry in the current low-price climate, outlining strategic reasons for bankruptcies, how unencumbered assets make for an atypical bankruptcy case, and how valuation and new borrower options could ultimately lead to adversarial cases.

Since May, we’ve followed Solus v. Perry, a New York County Supreme Court case originally filed in July of 2012. The case centered around whether Perry entered into a binding oral agreement to sell Solus a participation interest in a $1.6 billion claim against Bernie Madoff’s bankruptcy estate.

On May 29, 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases for RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC and its affiliate (together, the “Debtors”). The Court held that when a debtor proposes to sell a secured creditor’s collateral free and clear of the creditor’s lien pursuant to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, the debtor cannot deny the creditor the opportunity to “credit bid” in the sale without cause.