After six years of legal action and investigations, the Pensions Regulator (TPR) has agreed a £184 million settlement with PwC, administrators for the Lehman Brothers Group, which has secured members' benefits under the UK pension scheme. It also means the scheme will not go into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
Following the insolvency of the Lehman group in 2008, TPR began regulatory action in 2010 seeking the issue of a Financial Support Direction (FSD) to certain UK group companies. An FSD requires recipients to provide extra financial support to a scheme.
Mitigating Risk in African Investments
Lewis Bros. Bakeries, Inc. v. Interstate Brands Corp. (In re Interstate Bakeries Corp.)
This update considers the recent High Court decision in Thomasand Another v Edmondson (12/05.2014) concerning the court’s ability to make an income payment order against a bankrupt who is already subject to an income payment agreement.
The background
This update focusses on Teresa Graham’s recent review on pre-pack administration published by the Government which sets out areas for improvement and provides detailed recommendations to help better the procedure.
The background
Preamble
The COMI rules prevent a foreign based company from accessing the UK insolvency regimes, unless it has a sufficient connection with the UK. However, in Christophorus 3 Limited the High Court approved the ‘flipping up’ of a specially created UK newco in a German group to enter administration.
The background
The High Court described this case as ‘an elaborate scheme for the restructuring and refinancing’ of a German group.
The end of a legal saga
Many schemes will see a sharp increase in their levy next year as a result of the PPF’s new and more discriminative insolvency scoring system.
To give you an idea, the PPF expects:
Voss v. Knotts et al.
In a concise, unpublished decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants in a copyright suit on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked standing. Voss v. Knotts et al., Case No. 12-56168 (9th Cir., Apr. 8, 2014) (per curiam).
Introduction
The Chancellor’s 2014 Budget speech revealed significant changes to the way in which pension scheme members will be able to access their savings. This move falls as just one of a raft of changes to workplace pensions which Steve Webb MP has described as a “pensions revolution”.