On 25 May, the Insolvency Service published a consultation paper on options for reform of the UK's corporate insolvency regime. Their impetus is for the UK to remain at the forefront of insolvency best practice to ensure businesses, investors and creditors remain confident that best outcomes can be achieved when faced with financial difficulty, and to give a company the best possible chance to restructure its debts and return to profitability while protecting employees and creditors.

In an earlier blog piece we reported on the Third Circuit’s 2015 decision in In re Jevic Holding Corp. where the Court approved a settlement, implemented through a structured dismissal, which allowed junior creditors to receive a distribution prior to senior creditors being paid in full.

Introduction

14 червня 2016 р. було прийнято новий закон «Про фінансову реструктуризацію» (Закон), який повинен розв’язати багато протиріч та допомогти в проведенні реструктуризації боргів в Україні.

Закон запроваджує нову процедуру реструктуризації фінансової заборгованості українських боржників-юридичних осіб (Реструктуризація).

Особливості нової процедури Реструктуризації:

On 14 June 2016 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law “On Financial Restructuring” (the Law), which aims to solve many conflicts and assist in debt restructurings in Ukraine.

The Law provides a new procedure for restructuring financial debt of Ukrainian corporate debtors (the Restructuring).

Special features of new Restructuring procedure include:

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trustputs an end to one of Puerto Rico’s multi-pronged efforts to deleverage itself.

On 25 May, the Insolvency Service published a consultation paper on options for reform of the UK's corporate insolvency regime.

Introduction

The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench decision in Redwater Energy Corporation Re, 2016 ABQB 278, written by Chief Justice Neil Wittmann, clarifies that the provisions of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) addressing the environmental liability of trustees render certain provisions of provincial regulatory legislation addressing wells and pipelines inoperative to the extent they conflict with the BIA.

On April 15, 2016, the IRS released a generic legal advice memorandum (GLAM 2016-001) (the “April GLAM”) addressing the impact of so-called “bad boy” guarantees (also known as nonrecourse carve-out guarantees) on the characterization of underlying partnership debt as recourse vs. nonrecourse under Section 752 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Shareholders who received nearly $8 billion from the Tribune Company leveraged buyout (LBO) do not have to give back that money as a constructive fraudulent transfer. Although the possibility remains that the creditors can recover this money through the pending intentional fraudulent transfer claims, which are much more difficult to prove, the Second Circuit recently held that the Bankruptcy Code preempts creditors from recovering under state constructive fraud theories when shareholders receive distributions under securities contracts effectuated through financial institutions.