On the 2 August 2021 Treasury released a consultation paper titled ‘Helping Companies Restructure by Improving Schemes of Arrangement. The consultation is aimed at reforming Australia’s scheme of arrangement procedure.

The Chancellor announced in his budget that the Crown is to be re-instated as a preferential creditor in insolvency, reversing the changes brought in by The Enterprise Act 2002.

Administration and deeds of company arrangement have continued to have significant influence on major restructurings in the Australian market. In larger restructurings, administrations represent significant transactions where capital is deployed strategically to acquire businesses at significant discounts. A sound understanding of the procedures is key to private equity players for many reasons. Portfolio companies can be exposed to administrations where suppliers, customers or competitors experience financial difficulties.

An action has successfully been brought by the administrators of Questway Limited, Oceancrown Limited and Loanwell Limited (all in administration) against Stonegale Limited and Norman Ralph Pelosi (the sole shareholder and director of Stonegale Limited) to reduce alienations of properties in Glasgow, under s.242(1) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “Insolvency Act”).

As part of the Scottish Government’s aim of introducing a “Financial Health Service” in Scotland, the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act 2014 will this year bring into effect some of the widest reaching changes to the law on personal insolvency seen in the last five years. We set out below a brief guide to the main changes, as follows.

1) Business DAS – introduced in December 2014