The administrators of Avanti Communications Limited (the “Company”) sought directions from the High Court as to whether purported fixed charges in favour of the secured lenders to the satellite operating business should be recharacterised as floating charges (In the matter of Avanti Communications Limited (In administration) [2023] EWHC 940 (Ch)).

Summary of decision

The quarterly UK insolvency statistics (covering April to June 2022 inclusive) were released on 2 August 2022. They show that there has been an 81% rise in company insolvencies in England and Wales when compared with the same quarter in 2021, with the total number of company insolvencies in Q2 being the highest since Q3 2009. Significantly, creditors’ voluntary liquidations soared to 4,908, the highest number since the records started in 1960. The number of insolvencies look set to remain high for some time yet, given the difficult economic climate.

Smile Telecoms, which last year implemented the first restructuring plan for a cross-border African business, has now achieved another first by using section 901C(4) of the Companies Act 2006 to exclude all bar one class from voting on its new restructuring plan.

Need to know

In a first for the US and Australian markets, the Buccaneer Energy group of companies successfully had bankruptcy plans approved by the US Bankruptcy Court for both US and Australian incorporated debtor companies. 

"Once in a generation" review

Shortly before the Christmas break, the much anticipated review of the United States "Chapter 11 bankruptcy" regime was published by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). This is one of very few such major "root and branch" reviews of Chapter 11 since its enactment in 1978, and the first since the 1990s.