Following the administration of Virgin Australia the lessors of four engines that were leased to Virgin served notice requiring delivery up of the engines to a nominated address in the USA.  The administrators argued that their obligations to the lessors were met if they made the engines available for delivery up in Australia. 

The Supreme Court of NSW in Citadel Financial Corporation Pty Ltd [2020] NSWSC 886 has made orders (in accordance with section 447A(2(b) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) to terminate a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) on grounds that entry into such DOCA was an abuse of the voluntary administration process.

The English High Court in Telnic Ltd v Knipp Medien Und Kommunikation GmbH [2020] EWHC 2075 (Ch) has confirmed that the court has discretion to restrain a winding-up petition against debtor's when the debt is governed by an arbitration agreement.

Knipp Medien Und Kommunikation GmbH (Knipp) appealed against an order to stay its winding-up petition against Telnic Limited (Telnic). Telnic also brought a cross-appeal seeking orders that Knipp's petition be dismissed rather than stayed.

Susheel Dutt has unsuccessfully appealed a decision of the Disciplinary Tribunal that he was guilty of unbecoming conduct, negligence or incompetence in a professional capacity and the suspension of his membership for a period of 18 months, highlighting the important role that insolvency practitioners play and the high standards expected of the profession.

In this week’s update: designated members of an insolvent LLP breached their fiduciary duties when they agreed to waive a debt owed to the LLP, a gift of shares was effective, even though there was no evidence of an executed instrument of transfer and the Pre-Emption Group extends the relaxation of its principles to 30 November 2020.

In this week’s update: more details on plans for reforms of governance, audit and executive pay, Companies House is ending its temporary strike-off policy, the court orders virtual meetings on a scheme of arrangement and the FRC calls for participants in a review of company disclosures.

In this week’s update: The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 comes into force, the Government extends company and LLP filing deadlines, new guidance on public health emergency takeover interventions, FCA censure of accompany for historic market abuse and a few other items.

In this week’s update: the test for an LLP member to bring a derivative claim, updated guidance on company meetings, the court sanctions a takeover despite not all beneficial owners being able to vote on the scheme and a few other items.

Covid-19 is affecting the way people conduct their business, retain their staff, engage with clients, comply with regulations and the list goes on. Read our thoughts on these issues and many others on our dedicated Covid-19 page.

The High Court, in Quinn v Toon [2020] NZHC 816, confirmed that only the reasonable costs of the liquidators will be recoverable.

Ms Toon applied for orders under ss 276 and 278 of the Companies Act 1993 to approve her remuneration claiming $101,729 plus GST and expenses for her work as the liquidator of Investacorp Holdings Ltd.

This was a solvent liquidation.  While there were no creditors, there were disputes between shareholders that Ms Toon spent a considerable amount of time investigating.

In our December 2019 newsletter we commented that the Madoff bankruptcy had one more big case to go, chasing USD3.2b held by foreign banks.  The US Supreme Court has just refused to hear an application by major banks and companies, including Koch Industries Inc, to prevent Mr Picard, the bankruptcy trustee, from pursuing claims aimed at recouping funds that were transferred overseas.  In the meantime, Mr Madoff has been refused early