Background
In February 2012, following the highly political closing of the Florange site, a steel production plant, President François Hollande vowed that going forward any company wanting to close down its operations in France would have an obligation to first look for a purchaser.
A consultation process to update the insolvency laws and practices in Guernsey has been launched by a government department in the island with businesses, industry bodies, lawyers and insolvency practitioners being invited to respond to the process before 31 December 2014.
David Jones a restructuring and insolvency expert from Carey Olsen was invited to participate as part of the Commerce and Employment Department’s working party that reviewed the laws which raise a number of key areas for change.
Given the unfortunate reputation of French courts for awarding substantial damages to employees for unfair terminations, US corporations with operations in France are anxious to limit their financial and legal exposure in case of litigation initiated by their French workforce. How to achieve this efficiently is a far from rhetorical question as French employees frequently pull in the US parent company as a named defendant. The recent decision of the French Supreme Court [Cass. Soc.
One of the more effective risk-mitigation legal tools used by senior real estate lenders is the single purpose entity borrower. Among other things, having a single purpose, bankruptcy remote borrower makes avoiding the risks of bankruptcy easier. Even in bankruptcy, if the borrower is truly single purpose, and it keeps the universe of creditors small, the senior secured lender will have an easier time defeating any plan of reorganization proposed by the borrower because it will control all of the legitimate classes of creditors by virtue of th
WHAT IS FATCA?
A recent case heard before the Royal Court in Guernsey has provided clear guidance on the application of the principle of modified universalism to insolvency matters in Guernsey.
The Royal Court has recently given clear guidance on the application of the principle of modified universalism to insolvency matters in Guernsey. The case of EFG Private Bank (Channel Islands) Ltd v. BC Capital Group (in liquidation) & Ors [34/2013] will have significant consequences for cross- border insolvencies with a Guernsey element, as it sets out for the first time the principles which the Royal Court should consider when assessing the nature and extent of its obligation to provide “active assistance” to foreign insolvency proceedings.
In recent years, bankruptcy courts have come closer to reaching a consensus regarding their ability to recharacterize debt into equity. Yet, beneath this consensus lies a deepening divide that lenders should be aware of. Recharacterization challenges “the assertion of a debt against the bankruptcy estate on the ground that the ‘loaned’ capital was actually an equity investment.” In re Insilco Techs., Inc., 480 F.3d 212, 217 (3d Cir. 2007) (internal citations omitted).
Bankruptcy is intended to provide a fresh start and discharge outstanding debt. But some debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. A Virginia bankruptcy court held last week that a judgment against the debtor for intentional trade secret misappropriation is not dischargeable.
On August 21, 2013, in Wellness International Network v. Sharif, No. 12-1349 (7th Cir. August 21, 2013), the Seventh Circuit issued its latest opinion on the thorny issues emanating from the Supreme Court’s “narrow” decision in Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct.