On 8 July 2021, the Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) will come into force in the UK and introduce a new special administration regime for insolvent payment institutions (PIs) and electronic money institutions (EMIs). The key purposes of the Regulations are to ensure that, if a PI or EMI becomes insolvent (and/or it is fair or expedient to put the institution into special administration), funds are quickly returned to customers and any shortfalls in the amounts available are minimised.

2022. július 1. napján lép hatályba az új szerkezetátalakítási törvény, amely megoldást nyújthat a fizetésképtelenség határára sodródott vállalkozások pénzügyi nehézségeinek korai kezelésére, talpra állításuk ösztönzésére, valamint fizetőképességük helyreállítására. Az új, fizetésképtelenséget megelőző szerkezetátalakítási eljárás leginkább a csődeljárás alternatívája lehet; ebben az esetben azonban az adós alapvetően maga döntheti el, hogy mely hitelezőivel tárgyal és kiket von be a folyamatba.

In dismissing Darty Holdings SAS’ (“Darty”) appeal in a recent decision[1], Miles J. has confirmed that an English court will look at the actual relationship between the parties involved, rather than the wider context, when considering whether those parties are connected. This will be the case even where the wider context consists of a transaction that will, immediately following the relevant transaction, sever that relationship.

The Government’s roadmap out of lockdown signals a return to trading for a number of businesses hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is however potential for heightened financial distress in the coming period as existing support measures are withdrawn and currently deferred liabilities become payable, bringing the challenges faced by this sector into sharp focus.

As already announced in the article of Marc Molhuysen and Olmo Weeshoff of 20 December 2021, the new Dutch pre-insolvency tool, ‘The Act regarding the binding approval of debt restructuring agreements’, widely referred to as the WHOA (Wet homologatie onderhands akkoord) or the “Dutch Scheme” entered into force on 1 January 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruptions across the global economy, perhaps most severely in the retail sector. Shelter-in-place orders, government-mandated closures and other restrictions drastically reduced or entirely wiped out revenue streams, resulting in an increased number of bankruptcy filings by retail debtors.

A week is often described as a long time in politics, and so also (it seems) with the restructuring market.

Last week, we saw significant strides forward with:

The restructuring market has been eagerly anticipating the judgments in the New Look and Regis CVA challenges. The New Look judgment was handed down on 10 May 2021 and the Regis Judgment followed on 17 May 2021. This article briefly sets out the issues in the New Look CVA challenge, the decision of Mr Justice Zacaroli and what this means for the future of CVAs.

Overview of the New Look CVA Challenge

The claim brought by the Applicants (a consortium of compromised landlords) can be summarised briefly under three heads of claim:

Overview

On 12 May 2021, the High Court sanctioned three inter-conditional restructuring plans, under the Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006, for certain English subsidiaries of the Virgin Active group, despite major opposition of certain landlords.[1] In the landmark decision, the High Court exercised its discretion to cram-down multiple classes of dissenting landlords in each plan, compromising their claims.

Employees working for an insolvent company will have to be given at least 30 days’ notice of redundancy under new legislative reforms to be introduced by the Government. The proposal is part of a new Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Action Plan to boost the rights of employees hit by insolvency.

Currently, collective redundancies cannot take effect until after a statutory 30 day period of notification to employees. This does not apply to collective redundancies triggered by insolvency but the Government is now planning to remove that exemption.