Introduction

If a company is insolvent, it is either not able to pay its debts as they fall due, or its assets are less than its liabilities.  An investor/creditor will have the ability to put the company into a formal insolvency procedure and, in most cases, appoint an independent third party to take control of the assets and investigate the conduct of the company’s directors, managers and other controlling functionaries.  Defined terms in this article are the same as the terms which were defined in the potential causes of action article.

Background

The past eighteen months have seen a marked increase in the use of the Company Voluntary Arrangement (“CVA”) by retailers to reduce their lease liabilities and win the release of onerous parent company guarantees, with several high street names going through the process. Although this practice received cautious support from landlords, real concern continues to be voiced over the practice of “guarantee stripping”.

NEW RULES ON PRE-ADMINISTRATION COSTS

Insolvency Practitioners have been eagerly awaiting the implementation on 6 April 2010 of the Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2010 (“New Rules”). In addition to the many modernising changes made by the New Rules is the long awaited inclusion of what was believed to be a statutory entitlement to recover pre-appointment costs such as in negotiating a pre-pack. as an expense of the administration (New Rule 2.67(1)(h)).

(Judgment 3/2009)  

The liquidators of Flightlease (Guernsey) Limited (“FLGL”) applied to the Court for an order that no dividends be paid in the liquidation of FLGL to Flightlease (Ireland) Limited (“FLI”) in respect of guarantees given by  

FLGL in respect of FLI’s liabilities. FLI’s liabilities to FLGL were outweighed by the liabilities owed in the opposite direction.