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.
Following a series of important decisions in England and across Europe, it is now beyond doubt that court-based restructuring processes should be approached from the outset as pieces of litigation.
We have seen increasingly sophisticated challenges to restructurings, which the courts are willing to accommodate. In appropriate cases, the courts have also refused to sanction restructurings.
On 16 May 2023, Mr Justice Adam Johnson in the High Court refused to sanction the restructuring plan proposed by The Great Annual Savings Company Limited (GAS) following objections from HMRC.
On 30 March 2022, the English court sanctioned the most recent restructuring plan proposed by Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited (Smile).
A recent England and Wales High Court decision demonstrates the increasingly litigious nature of Court-supervised restructuring processes. It also addresses the Court’s approach to whether foreign recognition risks represent a ‘blot’ on a proposed scheme of arrangement so that the Court should decline sanction ('the recognition/blot question').
On February 29, 2016, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a decision in the ongoing insolvency proceeding of U. S. Steel Canada Inc. (USSC). Two principal issues were addressed by the Court. First, whether amounts advanced by United States Steel Corporation (USS) to USSC (its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary) were properly characterized as debt obligations or “equity claims” under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) (CCAA).
Le 29 février 2016, la Cour supérieure de justice de l’Ontario (la « Cour ») a rendu une décision dans le cadre de la procédure d’insolvabilité en instance d’Acier U. S. Canada Inc. (« USSC »). Dans cette affaire, la Cour s’est penchée sur deux grandes questions.