An important judgment by Snowden J yesterday, sanctioning Virgin Active's restructuring plans after a contested sanction hearing, which included a cram down of several landlord classes that did not approve the plans by the requisite majorities in those classes.

The decision is important as among the many points covered, it considers certain key issues including:

An important judgment handed down by Zacaroli J yesterday in the New Look CVA challenge. The New Look CVA proposal involved treating landlords of different leases in various different ways, including (i) resetting rent to a turnover percentage (ii) keeping rent intact and (iii) reducing rent to nil. Landlords are given the flexibility to terminate leases within a prescribed period where they identify a tenant prepared to pay better rent (important to ensure the landlord's proprietary right is not interfered with). In a CVA, all unsecured creditors are invited to vote.

Selección de las principales resoluciones en materia de reestructuraciones e insolvencias.

Suspensión de la junta general extraordinaria hasta la designación y aceptación del cargo por la administración concursal

Auto del Juzgado de lo Mercantil núm. 3 de Sevilla de 26 de febrero de 2021 (asunto “Abengoa”)

Selection of the main restructuring and insolvency judgments.

Suspension of special shareholders’ meeting until insolvency receiver’s appointment and acceptance of that appointment

Decision by Seville Commercial Court No 3 on February 26, 2021 (“Abengoa” case)

On January 22, 2021 Madrid's commercial court judges approved a set of agreed procedures for handling insolvency proceedings in which liquidation is requested together with the insolvency order, as well as a number of criteria for transfers of productive units in these and other insolvency processes.

The UK's accession to the Lugano Convention has become somewhat politicised, with the EU stating that it is not minded to allow the UK to accede, as that will then set a precedent for other third party states.

This will impact certain UK restructuring tools.

Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 regulations come into force on 26 March 2021 extending the duration of COVID-19 related temporary measures, including:

El impacto sostenido en la actividad económica que está teniendo la pandemia COVID-19 ha llevado al Gobierno, por un lado, a adoptar una serie de medidas destinadas a reforzar la liquidez y solvencia de las empresas y, por otro, a extender una vez más algunas de las medidas en el ámbito de la Administración de Justicia que se habían adoptado en el marco del Real Decreto-ley 16/2020, de 28 de abril, posteriormente confirmadas en la Ley 3/2020, de 18 de septiembre, así como en el Real Decreto-Ley 34/2020, de 17 de noviembre.

Some interesting recent scheme and plan law of late, proving that schemes and plans continue to be popular restructuring tools for all types of companies and international groups.

DeepOcean companies (Part 26A plans) – January 2021

This was the first time that the court had to consider the application of the new ‘cross-class cram down’ procedure under Part 26A. Trower J approved the plans proposed by three DeepOcean companies but had reserved judgment and in late January handed down a written judgment with important guidance for future plans.

Another interesting case on schemes around the issue of insolvency. A judgment handed down yesterday by Snowden J in MAB Leasing Limited (a Malaysia Airlines leasing company) "parked" the issue of whether a Part 26 scheme (note, not a Part 26A plan) was an insolvency related event under the Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol, as there was unanimous creditor consent. At the earlier convening hearing, Zacaroli J, without needing to decide the issue, stated that the company counsel's skeleton provided a "powerful case for concluding that the [Cape Town Convention] did not apply".