Introduction
On 20 May 2025, Mr Justice Marcus Smith handed down his eagerly-awaited judgment sanctioning the two inter-conditional restructuring plans (the Plans) proposed by members of the Petrofac Group. The judgment raises issues described as “going to the heart of the Part 26A regime” and is significant as the first case to consider the application of the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Thames Water.
The judgment addresses three particularly interesting points:
On 8 April 2025, Mr Justice Marcus Smith delivered judgment granting Petrofac Limited and Petrofac International (UAE) LLC (the Plan Companies) permission to convene creditor meetings in respect of two inter-conditional restructuring Plans (the Plans). The fulsome judgment, following hearings on 28 February and 20 March, contains a number of interesting points:
The Sino-Ocean restructuring plan is the first to be sanctioned in 2025 – but it starts the year off with a very interesting bang. In a relatively short (and commendably clear) judgment, the Court addresses head on:
New rules in the UK allow Companies House to share non-public information with insolvency officeholders and the Official Receiver.
While in many cases there may be limited non-public information available from Companies House that will be useful to insolvency officeholders, this is another tool available to deploy in appropriate cases. It is specifically envisaged to assist officeholders pursuing claims for fraudulent and wrongful trading, transactions at an undervalue and preferences.
On 13 December 2024, EU member states agreed on a ‘partial’ general approach to the harmonisation of insolvency law.
The Abu Dhabi Global Market (the “ADGM”) courts have recently handed down their decision in NMC Healthcare Limited & Others v Shetty & Others ([2024] ADGMCFI 0007). The decision deals with several important principles in relation to fraudulent/wrongful trading liabilities under ADGM law. Given the ADGM re-domiciliation (or continuation) regime, enabling companies incorporated elsewhere to be redomiciled to ADGM with relative ease, the decision is likely to be of interest beyond the borders of the ADGM.
The UK National Security and Investment Act came into force on 4 January 2022, significantly extending the UK Government’s power to investigate and intervene in transactions which pose, or could pose, threats to the UK’s national security.
On 17 April 2024 the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (theUKJT), chaired by Sir Geoffrey Vos published its Legal Statement on Digital Assets and English Insolvency Law.
自改革开放以来,我国经济经历了四十余年的高速增长,目前已由高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段。在高速增长阶段积累的债务风险近年来不断显现,金融机构的不良资产不断增加。现阶段为深化供给侧结构性改革,推动经济高质量发展,对我国经济社会发展过程中存在债务风险的重点领域实施系统性、高质量的债务重组是重要的着力点之一。
自上世纪九十年代以来,金杜开始参与我国一些大型企业集团的债务重组工作;2007年《企业破产法》实施后,金杜更是一直活跃在债务重组市场的一线,既承办和参与了包括海航集团、紫光集团、渤海钢铁、永泰能源、盐湖股份、雨润集团、包商银行、新华信托等在内的一大批大型企业债务重组案件,也承办了大量的“三无”、中小型的企业破产清算案件。金杜债务重组部三十多年来一直专注债务重组领域,积累了丰富的债务重组实践经验。为对我国的债务重组实践提供有益借鉴,同时也为金杜能够更好地服务于债务重组市场,结合过往承办的债务重组具体案例,我们对债务重组市场进行2023年度回顾和观察分析,以期对相关法治建设、营商环境改善以及提高债务重组质量建言献策。
目录
一、2023年我国宏观债务形势整体观察
(一)2023年度宏观经济形势
(二)我国目前存在债务问题的重点领域
Prompted by the EU Restructuring Directive and accelerated by the pandemic, jurisdictions all across Europe have completely transformed their restructuring regimes in recent years. This is part of a global trend towards more debtor-friendly, rescue-orientated restructuring regimes, inspired by US Chapter 11.