2019年11月14日,最高院正式发布第九次全国法院民商事审判工作会议的会议纪要——《全国法院民商事审判工作会议纪要》(简称“《九民纪要》”)。
对资产证券化圈的许多机构从业者,《九民纪要》具体有什么样的意义可能不太熟悉。在这里,我们还是借用引言中的一句话来体现它的意义:
“对当前民商事审判工作中的一些疑难法律问题取得了基本一致的看法。”
《九民纪要》的条款中,与金融业务有关的就可以说是包罗万象。但在正式看条款和案例之前,不妨先再来品读一下它的引言部分:
这些统领性原则,结合一些代表性案例,我们认为,会赋予证券化业务更多的司法支持。具体体现在:
It has long been the law that creditors are rarely entitled to contractually prohibit a debtor from filing for bankruptcy, whether such restriction is contained in the debt instruments or in the corporate governance documents. In contrast, governance provisions which condition a bankruptcy filing on the vote or consent of certain equity holders that are unaffiliated with any creditor are frequently enforced. Many equity sponsors, for example, wear two hats: they are both shareholders and lenders to their portfolio companies.
In Nortel Networks, Inc., Case No. 09-0138(KG), Doc. No. 18001 (March 8, 2017), the Delaware Bankruptcy Court ruled on the objections of two noteholders who asked the Court to disallow more than $4.4 million of the $8.1 million of the fees sought by counsel to their indenture trustee. Given the detailed rulings announced by the Court, the decision may establish a number of guidelines by which future fee requests made by an indenture trustee’s professionals will be measured.
Matters Handled by the UCC
“The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.”
Robert Frost, “The Oven Bird”
In a significant expansion of the potential risk for distressed claims traders, the Delaware bankruptcy court has recently ruled1 that traders who engage in insider trading may have their claims subordinated to equity, and that traders who amass claims sufficient to block a plan of reorganization owe fiduciary duties to all other creditors and shareholders during plan negotiations.