What we've been up to?
In the six months since our last full newsletter, the UK has witnessed some monumental events, the most significant of course being the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II – followed by no less than three different occupants at Nos. 10 & 11 Downing Street, a UK record summer temperature of 40.3C, inflation hitting a 41 year high, startling increases in energy & food prices (exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine) and, as of this month, the UK economy officially falling into recession.
Over the span of two weeks in July 2022, two of the largest retail-facing cryptocurrency platforms, Celsius and Voyager, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The recent case of PSV 1982 Limited v Langdon [2022] has clarified what is a ‘relevant debt’ of a company which uses a ‘prohibited name’ and for which a director or person who manages that company can be personally liable for.
Who will be interested in this article?
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (“SC”) has recently handed down a decision in the case of BTI v Sequana, dealing with the powers and duties of company directors. The appeal was expected to be of considerable importance.
This alert is especially relevant to companies, and directors of companies, in financial distress, as well as creditors and insolvency practitioners.
Key Takeaways
In New York, it is a standard practice to name all tenants residing in a building when foreclosing upon the property.
On July 7, 2022, the UK Insolvency Service, an executive agency of government responsible for a variety of roles in administering the UK insolvency regime, published a consultation on the UK’s proposed adoption of two UNCITRAL Model Laws on insolvency, inviting responses (the “Consultation”).
The Insolvency Service has recently announced their proposal to increase the cost of deposits payable on creditors’ bankruptcy and winding-up petitions which are presented on or after 1st November 2022.
The proposal is as follows:
Bankruptcy Petition deposit increasing from £990 to £1,500
Winding-up Petition deposit increasing from £1,600 to £2,600
If the proposed changes are approved it will mean the overall fee to issue petitions (including the court fee) will be:
On August 29, 2022, in the PG&E bankruptcy matter, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit became the first circuit-level court to address the question of what is the correct rate of interest to be applied to unimpaired unsecured claims against a fully solvent debtor.[2] In its decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the bankruptcy court’s and district court’s rulings and held that such creditors are entitled to receive postpe
On 1 August 2022, the English High Court granted the administrators of Petropavlovsk PLC (the “Company”) permission to enter into a sale of its Russian assets to Russian entity UMMC-Invest (the “Proposed Sale”) amidst sanctions concerns.
Oliver Fitzpatrick, a partner in the firm’s Business Support and Insolvency team, successfully acted for a company in resisting an application that was made against it by a petitioning creditor for permission to appeal earlier decisions made by Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Barber to (a) dismiss that petition forthwith and (b) have the petitioning creditor pay our client’s costs in dealing with the petition.