DLA Piper Hong Kong recently represented Dr. Hui Chi Ming as a judgment creditor (Judgment Creditor) and petitioner to a bankruptcy proceeding against Mr. Koon Wing Yee (Debtor). In the judgment of Re Koon Wing Yee [2023] HKCFI 2301, the Court of First Instance made a bankruptcy order against the Debtor because he had failed to show a bona fide dispute on substantial grounds regarding the debt.

On August 17, 2023, China Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest real estate developers, and its affiliates filed chapter 15 petitions in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan seeking recognition of foreign restructuring proceedings in the High Court of Hong Kong and in the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the British Virgin Islands.

On Sunday 26 August the UK Government confirmed its intention, when Parliamentary time permits, to introduce radical proposals to reform insolvency law. The moves, announced in “Insolvency and Corporate Governance – Government Response”, proposes the introduction of a new moratorium to give viable, but financially distressed companies breathing space to address their problems.