This week the Court of Appeal has heard the long awaited appeal in Jervis and another v Pillar Denton Limited (Game Station) and others, better known as the Game Station case, which (depending on the outcome) may trigger a drastic change to the way in which rent in administration is treated.

In Europe each year there are an estimated 200,000 corporate insolvencies. More than half of the companies set up do not survive their first five years of trading and more than 1.7 million jobs are lost every year as a result. One in five of those companies will have international operations that cross national borders.

The European Union (EU) has sought to introduce an element of harmonization across its Member States, to facilitate the effective operation of cross-border insolvencies.

An administrators’ appointment automatically ends after one year, unless steps are taken to extend it. The Enterprise Act introduced a new streamlined process for moving quickly and easily from administration to creditors’ voluntary liquidation, just by filing a notice at Companies House under para 83(3) Sch B1 of the Insolvency Act (IA)1986. Problems have arisen where that notice has been filed very late in the day and not received before the administrators’ term of office automatically ends.

This paper aims to briefly describe the scenarios where acts or actions might be rescinded (particularly in the context of refinancing or debt restructuring of Spanish companies) pursuant to the Spanish Insolvency Act (“SIA”) and the consequences of rescission from a legal standpoint. Procedural questions related to the subject matter are not analyzed in this document.

What acts can be rescinded?

1. Introduction

Given the situation of Spanish market generally —and the latest reforms on restructuring of the financial sector more particularly— it seems that cash flow shortage may be ongoing in the near to mid term future for some Spanish corporations. Upon this situation stressed or distressed companies may consider rescue financing alternatives in substitution —or in addition to— other traditional funding. Generally within a broadest restructuring deal, non-bank lenders may have an interesting role to play in providing for liquidity facilities.

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”.

In a blow to administrators that will surely impact on the timings of any administration, most particularly those involving a large property portfolio, HHJ Purle, sitting in the High Court, has handed down a decision that will have ramifications potentially as serious as those of Re Trident Fashions for administrators in considering how long to remain in office, or indeed whether to accept an appointment at all.