It is not uncommon for contractors, in several industry sectors, to contract with a special purpose vehicle (SPV), whose day-to-day management is effectively controlled by a parent company, and the SPV has with little to no assets beyond cash flow provided by its parent. In this article we look at what a claimant could do outside of the traditional insolvency process in circumstances where the SPV goes into a form of external administration such as administration or liquidation and there are no assets available to the external administrators.

In the recent decision of Re PBS Building (Qld) Pty Ltd [2024] QSC 108, the Supreme Court of Queensland considered for the first time the operation of the State’s new project and retention trust account regime in the context of an insolvency. The decision provides useful guidance to insolvency practitioners and subcontractors as to their rights in relation to trust accounts established by an insolvent head contractor.

The High Court of Australia’s decision in Wells Fargo Trust Company, National Association (as Owner Trustee) & Anor v VB Leaseco Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) & Ors (the “Willis” case).

On Wednesday, 16 March 2022, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the Willis case.

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).

Background

Following our previous alert here on Justice Middleton’s decision in Wells Fargo Trust Company, National Association (trustee) v VB Leaseco Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed),[1] the administra

On 14 May 2015, Australia acceded to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (“Cape Town Convention”) and the Protocol to the Cape Town Convention (“Cape Town Protocol”). In particular, for insolvency related proceedings, Australia adopted what is known as “Alternative A” in aviation industry speak. The Cape Town Convention became effective as Australian law on 1 September 2015 and applies to the relevant aviation leasing and financing transitions entered into after that date.