On 30 March 2022, the English court sanctioned the most recent restructuring plan proposed by Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited (Smile).
The High Court has sanctioned the Part 26A restructuring plan of E D & F Man Holdings Limited (the Plan) on which Freshfields has advised the E D & F Man Group (the Group). The Plan represents the first full-scale financial restructuring to utilise cross-class cram-down in respect of a financial creditor class and to amend articles of association. This scenario represents the paradigm use case practitioners and commentators envisaged when Part 26A was introduced in 2020.
Good afternoon.
Following are this week’s summaries of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of March 21, 2022.
Areas of law covered in the cases this week included bankruptcy and insolvency (setting aside discharge from bankruptcy and after-acquired property), municipal liability for building inspections, two child protection decisions, guarantees and a partnership dispute.
Wishing everyone an enjoyable weekend.
Table of Contents
Civil Decisions
Good afternoon.
Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of March 14, 2022.
Topics covered this week included property of a bankrupt (beneficial interest in trust property), testamentary capacity and extensions of time to perfect appeals.
Wishing everyone an enjoyable weekend.
Table of Contents
Civil Decisions
Good evening.
Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of March 7, 2022.
In Ernst & Young Inc. v. Aquino, the court upheld the application judge’s decision to grant the orders the Bondfield monitor and trustee in bankruptcy requiring payments made at undervalue to be repaid. In coming to its decision, the Court applied the corporate attribution doctrine.
On 25 January 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published draft guidance on how it will approach ‘compromises’ by regulated firms. The guidance is expressed to cover restructuring plans, schemes of arrangement and CVAs.
In our last blogpost (here) we reported how the court had, for the first time, exercised its power under s. 901C(4) Companies Act 2006 to exclude a company’s members and all but one class of its creditors from voting on a restructuring plan under Part 26A. The facts of this case are set out in more detail in that blogpost.
Summary
For the first time, the court has exercised its power under s. 901C(4) Companies Act 2006 to exclude a company’s members and all but one class of its creditors from voting on a restructuring plan under Part 26A. The court was satisfied that only one class of creditors had a genuine economic interest in the company and noted that “this was not a marginal case”.
Key drivers for the court’s decision (see more detail below) were:
Good afternoon.
Following are this week’s summaries of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of December 27, 2021. There were only two substantive civil decisions released this week.
In August 2021, Sir Alistair Norris sanctioned the restructuring plan of Amicus Finance PLC (Amicus) (as we wrote about at the time). On 15 November 2021, the judge handed down his reasoning for sanctioning the plan.
Background