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The Cayman Islands is the preeminent offshore jurisdiction for corporate, fund and finance vehicles. It is also a creditor friendly jurisdiction, where properly constituted security has statutory protection from the reach of liquidators. We explore some of the options available to lenders and companies when navigating troubled waters.

1 Introduction

Broadly, the end of life options for a solvent Cayman Islands company are either a voluntary liquidation or a strike-off. The appropriateness of either method will depend on the business history of the company and its current financial position. The company should ideally have no assets or liabilities before the commencement of either option.

Preliminary steps

Before commencing the dissolution process, it may be necessary to take some preliminary steps, such as ensuring that:

On October 17, 2022, Justice Andrea Masley of the NY Supreme Court issued a decision and order denying all but one of the motion to dismiss claims filed by Boardriders, Oaktree Capital (an equity holder, term lender, and “Sponsor” under the credit agreement), and an ad hoc group of lenders (the “Participating Lenders”) that participated in an “uptiering” transaction that included new money investments and roll-ups of existing term loan debt into new priming debt that would sit at the top of the company’s capital structure.

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On December 19, 2019, the Second Circuit held that appellants’ state law constructive fraudulent transfer claims were preempted by virtue of the Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbors that exempt transfers made in connection with a contract for the purchase, sale or loan of a security from being clawed back into the bankruptcy estate for

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