Key Takeaways

As reported earlier, a new corporate restructuring law will be enacted in Germany. The new law's centerpiece will be the so-called stabilization and restructuring framework ("SRF"). The German Parliament (the Bundestag) passed the law on 17 December 2020. On 18 December 2020 the law was also accepted by the Federal Council (the Bundesrat). It will come into force on 1 January 2021, already.

Wie bereits berichtet erhält Deutschland ein neues Restrukturierungsrecht für Unternehmen, dessen Herzstück der sogenannte Stabilisierungs- und Restrukturierungsrahmen („SRR“) ist. Der Bundestag hat das entsprechende Gesetz am 17. Dezember 2020 verabschiedet. Am 18. Dezember 2020 wurde das Gesetz auch durch den Bundesrat gebilligt. Es wird bereits am 1. Januar 2021 in Kraft treten.

On 2 June 2020, Mr Justice Morgan handed down his judgment in the case of Re: A Company [2020] EWHC 1406 (Ch) in which a High Street retailer (whose identity is not disclosed) applied to restrain the presentation of a winding-up petition based on the provisions of the yet-to-be-enacted Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill 2020 (the “Bill”).

The Government published its Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill on 20 May 2020, which will implement the most significant reform to the UK’s insolvency framework in decades. In addition to permanent landmark changes, including introducing a business rescue moratorium and new restructuring plan, the Bill contains a number of temporary measures to help businesses respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

Aussetzung der Insolvenzantragspflicht, Lockerung der Zahlungsverbote, Einschränkung der Insolvenzanfechtung, Ausschluss der Kündigung von Miet- und Pachtverhältnissen sowie Verbraucherdarlehensverträgen, Moratorium zu Gunsten von Verbrauchern und Kleinstunternehmen betreffend wesentlicher Dauerschuldverhältnisse, weitere Regelungen

Germany has notoriously broad voidability laws. As a rule of thumb, any payment by a third party has high voidability risks if the third party has no obligation to make the payment under the contract. Such payments qualify as incongruent (3 months hardening period, very few further requirements) and often qualify as gratuitous (4 years hardening period, without any further requirements). A recent decision of the German High Court has stirred hope that the Court may give some leeway to cash pool payments by group companies.

The oil and gas industry in the United States is highly dependent upon an intricate set of agreements that allow oil and gas to be gathered from privately owned land. Historically, the dedication language in oil and gas gathering agreements — through which the rights to the oil or gas in specified land are dedicated — was viewed as being a covenant that ran with the land. That view was put to the test during the wave of oil and gas exploration company bankruptcies that began in 2014.

On February 25, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision holding that a trustee is not barred by either the presumption against extraterritoriality or by international comity principles from recovering property from a foreign subsequent transferee that received the property from a foreign initial transferee.