This case is within the Chestnut Portfolio acquired by the Cerberus global private investment group and has been one of its most hard fought cases, involving personal debts and security of over £12m and litigation spanning back to 2016.
Summary
Alerts and Updates
The opinion is significant for a number of reasons, not least of which is that the Bankruptcy Court held that a make-whole premium is not a claim for unmatured interest as the Court of Appeals had intimated.
With two of the UK's biggest cinema chains announcing, within days of each other, significant curbs to their operations due to COVID-19's continued impact on the entertainment sector, our restructuring and insolvency team have looked at the particular challenges faced by these venues and some of the steps their operators and funders should consider to help keep the curtains open.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE UK'S ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
Two directors from the UK were disqualified for 12 years each after they used funds from existing clients to payback previous clients. The directors' company entered into loan agreements with existing clients worth around £9.1 million for forex trades, in return for interest and loan repayments. The Insolvency Service later discovered that at least £8.4 million was used to make interest and loan repayments to previous clients.
Included in this update: Government extends temporary COVID-19 measures in CIGA 2020 and more...
COVID-19
CIGA 2020 extensions in force
In In re Smith, (B.A.P. 10th Cir., Aug. 18, 2020), the U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently joined the majority of circuit courts of appeals in finding that a creditor seeking a judgment of nondischargeability must demonstrate that the injury caused by the prepetition debtor was both willful and malicious under Section 523(a)(6) of the Bankruptcy Code.
Factual Background
Along with tightening social controls, the months ahead will be defined by various critical relationships and the rules that govern them. Of course they all interlock: material change in any of them impacts each of the others. Which causes multiple complexities in decision-making and risk assessment processes, both within a business and when looking at critical suppliers and customers:
Landlords and Tenants:
Alerts and Updates
The Third Circuit’s ruling in In re Tribune provides important insight on what it means for a plan to unfairly discriminate.
THE LANDLORD'S POSITION' TO CVAs v PRE-PACKS
There has been much press coverage in recent years on Tenant CVAs and the tempo on these has increased in recent weeks with the approval of CVAs for New Look, Pizza Express and Yo Sushi! amongst others.
The devastating effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the entire leisure and hospitality sector, but nowhere has felt the pain quite as acutely as the UK's night-time economy which, without extended Government support, may struggle to survive. With crowds the new enemy, many venues will remain closed for the foreseeable future and possibly for good.