Go-To Guide:

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.

On July 15, 2022, Italy’s Code of Business Crisis and Insolvency (CCII or Crisis Code) took effect, following three previous measures: (i) Legislative Decree 14/2019, (ii) the “corrective” Legislative Decree 147/2020, and (iii) Legislative Decree 83/2022 implementing European Directive 2019/1023 (although some minimal parts of the Crisis Code are already in effect).

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO

The team have been busy dealing with a wide range of instructions over the past few months.

Some of our recent highlights include:

In a hearing yesterday, 6 April 2022, the High Court considered an application of the directors of VTB Capital PLC (VTB UK) for the appointment of Teneo Financial Advisory Limited as administrators.

In what Mr Justice Fancourt described as “an unusual case in all sorts of ways”, the English High Court was faced with a number of questions relating to how the UK’s insolvency regime can interact with the sanctions packages introduced in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Despite a valuation fight, the Senior Lenders primed by Super Senior Debt in RP1 have had their debt written off in full in RP2 without even being given the opportunity to vote on the latter restructuring plan.

The case emphasizes that it is not enough for junior creditors to send letters to the court objecting to the RP and then expect the court to argue their case for them. In the words of Lord Justice Snowden, “they must stop shouting from the spectators’ seats and step up to the plate”.

An analysis of the UK’s corporate rescue tools: The Company Voluntary Arrangement, the Scheme of Arrangement and the Restructuring Plan.

When it comes to options for the rescue of a distressed UK corporate, there had for a very long time been a growing mood of regret amongst practitioners that there was no comprehensive restructuring tool. That all changed with the introduction of the Restructuring Plan (RP).

But, as with all things new, the evitable question is: what happens to the old?

Over the last 6 months, the Debt Recovery team has seen an increase in their monitoring of debtor companies and notification for proposals for striking off action. The team are actively reviewing and objecting to any such proposals with Companies House to allow their clients to continue to chase their debts.

IN THE NEWS

Government lifts (in part) the temporary insolvency measures

On 9 September 2021, the government announced that the temporary restrictions introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA 2020) which were put in place to protect companies during the pandemic are being lifted, and will be replaced from 1 October 2021 with new temporary measures, which include the introduction of a temporary revised debt limit for presenting winding up petitions.

What have we been up to?

Aside from our collective (but not wholly unexpected) disappointment that the lifting of the remaining Covid restrictions has been pushed back to 19 July, the team continue to advise on a wide range of insolvency related matters, amongst the recent highlights being: