The English Court of Appeal has recently decided that a corporation that held shares in a company remained a shareholder notwithstanding the shareholding company's dissolution.

BWE Estates Limited had two shareholders: an individual named David who held 75% of its shares and a company, Belvedere Limited, which held the remaining 25%. Although Belvedere was dissolved in 1996, it remained listed as a shareholder in BWE's share register.

In the English High Court, the joint administrators of four English companies within the former Lehman Brothers group sought directions from the Court in respect of a proposed settlement. The settlement would put to rest substantial inter-company claims including those at issue in the 'Waterfall III' proceedings.

In a second application heard on the same day, Hildyard J considered an application by the administrators of Lehman Brothers Europe Limited (LBEL) for directions that would enable a surplus to be distributed to the sole member of LBEL while LBEL remained in administration. The proposed scheme had material benefits for both shareholders and creditors. The administrators acknowledged that the orders sought were an indirect means of circumventing the Insolvency Act 1986 (UK), which does not expressly provide for directors to make distributions during an administration.

The Court of Appeal has recently dismissed an appeal from the High Court's judgment (discussed in our September 2016 update) setting aside a compromise under Part 14 of the Companies Act 1993 after finding that the challenging creditors, who had voted against the compromise, had been unfairly prejudiced by the decision to call only one meeting of creditors.

In Day v The Official Assignee as Liquidator of GN Networks Ltd (in Liq) [2016] NZHC 2400, the High Court rejected a claim that the funding arrangement at issue constituted maintenance or champerty.

Il Decreto Legge n. 83 del 27 giugno 2015, convertito dalla Legge n. 132 del 6 agosto 2015, pubblicata in Gazzetta Ufficiale il 20 agosto 2015 (la “Legge 132”) ha introdotto una serie di misure di sostegno per la crescita economica relative alle procedure pre-fallimentari, a quelle esecutive e a specifici benefici fiscali.

1. MODIFICHE ALLE PROCEDURE PRE-FALLIMENTARI

• Previsioni generali relative alla procedura di concordato preventivo

Law Decree no. 83 of 27 June 2015, recently converted into Law 132/2015, which was approved on 6 August 2015 and published on the Official Gazette on 20 August 2015 (the “Law 132”) introduced a number of measures aimed at enhancing the economic growth mainly related to pre-insolvency procedures, enforcement procedures and fiscal benefits.

Con l’art. 33 del D.L. 22 giugno 2012 n. 831 il legislatore ha ampliato il novero delle ipotesi in cui le perdite su crediti iscritte in bilancio sono deducibili ai fini delle imposte sui redditi ed esteso agli accordi di ristrutturazione dei debiti omologati e ai piani attestati di risanamento la disciplina dell’irrilevanza impositiva delle sopravvenienze attive realizzate dall’impresa debitrice in relazione alla riduzione dei debiti nell’ambito delle procedure concorsuali.