As discussed in our prior blog entitled “New York’s Sovereign Debt Restructuring Proposals,”[1] three bills were introduced in the New York state legislature to overhaul the way sovereign debt restructurings are handled in New York. Those bills sought to implement a comprehensive mechanism for restructuring sovereign debt, limit recovery on certain sovereign debt claims, and amend the champerty defense.

The first half of 2023 witnessed the failure of three financial institutions in quick succession—Silicon Valley Bank (March 10, 2023), Signature Bank (March 12, 2023), and First Republic Bank (May 1, 2023). This was the first time three financial institutions failed in such a compressed time period since the Great Recession of 2008.

The saga of the first Ultra Petroleum Corp. chapter 11 cases appears to have finally come to an end. Numerous articles have been written on the tortured history of whether certain creditors of Ultra Petroleum are entitled to payment of their contractually mandated Make-Whole Amount and default rate of interest.

It is axiomatic – at least as a prima facie proposition – that insolvency is only concerned about assets which belong to the insolvent when the insolvency commences (or, as it is often said when a concursus creditorum is established on the commencement of insolvency). South African insolvency law respects property rights which have accrued under our law prior to the commencement of insolvency proceedings, including security interests such as mortgages, liens and cessions.

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) issued a Business Rescue Proceedings Report (Business Rescue Report) on business rescue proceedings from its inception on 1 May 2011 to 31 December 2021 – a “ten-year” scorecard. It takes stock of how business rescue has developed over that period and whether South Africa has matured as a late entrant into the playing field of corporate restructuring regimes. The story must be told over the “ten-year” period and dissected into two parts: pre- and post-pandemic.

Chapter 6 of the Companies Act, 2008 affords a financially distressed company a fighting chance to restructure its financial obligations and avoid the destruction of value through liquidation for the duration of its formal chapter 6 business rescue proceedings. Such a moratorium is not available if a company seeks to conclude a restructure through a compromise or arrangement with all its creditors or members of any class of creditors.

Can a foreign business go into business rescue in South Africa?

South Africa’s new corporate restructuring regime – known to many as business rescue – came into operation in May 2011. In it, the provision in chapter 6 of the Companies Act, 2008 provide a business in financial distress with an opportunity to preserve its goodwill. Under the formal chapter 6 business rescue process, breathing space through a moratorium is provided to enable the business to address any temporary liquidity issues, repayment obligations and capital raising.

On 21 April 2020, just over a week before the anticipated end of the South African national lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced further economic and social relief measures in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. This comes at a time when South Africa teeters towards a food and humanitarian crisis of “biblical proportions”.

In the past several years, the United States has seen a tidal wave of retail sector chapter 11 cases. The end result for most of those cases has been going out of business and liquidation sales. On March 11, 2020, Modell’s Sporting Goods commenced its chapter 11 cases seeking to follow a similar path taken by other retailers by closing all 153 sporting goods stores in a controlled liquidation. Unfortunately for Modell’s, the COVID-19 crisis hit the United States just as Modell’s commenced its liquidation.