On Wednesday 29 April the Outer House of the Court of Session in Edinburgh issued an opinion sanctioning two schemes of arrangement proposed by Premier Oil Plc and Premier Oil UK Limited (together, Premier Oil) (the Schemes). The Court addressed multiple grounds of challenge and did so without hearing live evidence, despite disputes of fact between the parties.

Analysts expect that GDP will plummet as a consequence of the restrictions on economic activities imposed as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the global economy, and with it the Czech economy, will slow down considerably. Various entities from across numerous industries are facing, or may soon face, an immediate liquidity shortfall.

One of the recent hot topics in the European restructuring market has been whether the UK Courts would sanction a scheme of arrangement in relation to a foreign company, with no previous connection to the UK whatsoever, where the sole basis for establishing jurisdiction to undertake the scheme would be amending the governing law and jurisdiction clauses of the company’s principal finance documents to English law.