On 13 December 2024, EU member states agreed on a ‘partial’ general approach to the harmonisation of insolvency law.

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission published itsproposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law (COM(2022) 702; 2022/0408 (COD)) (the Proposal). Readers may be aware that the EU has already legislated in the area of insolvency.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish Government has approved a number of financial support measures to address companies’ liquidity requirements, including the creation of two guarantee schemes (líneas de avales) managed through the Spanish Official Credit Institute (Instituto de Crédito Oficial – ICO) in relation to financings granted to companies and the self-employed:

The Spanish Government has extended the various support measures aimed at helping Spain deal with the economic impact of COVID-19.

This blog post summarises the most relevant new insolvency measures of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021 (‘the RDL’), which was approved on 12 March 2021 and entered into force on 13 March 2021.

Debtor's duty to file for insolvency

The deadline to file for voluntary insolvency has been extended until 31 December 2021 (the previous deadline was 14 March 2021).

The High Court of Hong Kong refused to allow a Chapter 11 Trustee to disclose a Decision from Hong Kong winding up proceedings in the US bankruptcy court. The US proceedings were commenced to prevent a creditor from taking action following a breach of undertakings given to the Hong Kong court in circumstances where the company had no jurisdictional connection with the US.

Following our previous article, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal following the High Court deciding that a moratorium in relation to restructuring proceedings in Azerbaijan could not be extended in breach of the Gibbs rule, allowing two significant creditors to proceed with their claims in the English Courts.

Despite the debtor's contention that his primary residence was in the United States, the Court held that it had jurisdiction to make a Bankruptcy Order following a petition presented by HMRC.

HMRC presented a bankruptcy petition against Robert Stayton on 30 May 2014 who owed approximately £653,640. The matter came before the court on a number of occasions before the final hearing, with judgment being handed down in November 2018.

A discharged Bankrupt had intentionally misled the Court as to his COMI being in England and Wales in order to obtain a Bankruptcy Order. Four years after the making of the Bankruptcy Order, the Court annulled it on the grounds that the Court did not have jurisdiction to make the Order in the first place.

Ashfords successfully acted for the Joint Trustees in Bankruptcy of Vincent Mascarenhas (deceased) in their application to discharge Freezing Orders, an Interim Charging Order and an Interim Third Party Debt Order obtained by creditors of the late Bankrupt in 2014. The Joint Trustees were not a party to the original proceedings but had standing to make the applications.

The Hong Kong Court have confirmed for the first time that a foreign voluntary liquidation is eligible for common law recognition and assistance in Hong Kong.

China Culture Media International Holdings Limited, incorporated in the BVI, was wound up on 9 May 2016. China Culture was the sole shareholder of Supreme Tycoon Limited, also incorporated in the BVI.