The quarterly UK insolvency statistics (covering April to June 2022 inclusive) were released on 2 August 2022. They show that there has been an 81% rise in company insolvencies in England and Wales when compared with the same quarter in 2021, with the total number of company insolvencies in Q2 being the highest since Q3 2009. Significantly, creditors’ voluntary liquidations soared to 4,908, the highest number since the records started in 1960. The number of insolvencies look set to remain high for some time yet, given the difficult economic climate.
The most innovative features of the new Insolvency Code include, among others: (i) the introduction of safeguard obligations aimed at detecting corporate distress and promoting the adoption of restructuring tools at an early stage; (ii) a more favourable approach to procedures allowing for business continuation on a going concern basis, as opposed to those leading to liquidation of the company; and (iii) specific provisions concerning the insolvency / restructuring of company groups.
Introduction
The Court of First Instance held in Re Up Energy Development Group Limited [2022] HKCFI 1329 that where the three core requirements for winding-up a foreign company under section 327(1) of the Companies (Winding up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32) (CWUMPO) are satisfied, the mere fact that the foreign company has been ordered to be wound up by the court in its place of incorporation is not a ground for the Hong Kong court to decline the making of a winding up order.
A former listco
Judgment has been reserved on the sanction of Houst Ltd’s restructuring plan at a hearing held in front of Zacaroli J on Friday morning (15 July 2022), while the company gathers the further valuation information requested by the court. If sanctioned, the plan will be the first use of the restructuring plan by an SME, and will involve a “cram” of HMRC notwithstanding the tax authority’s secondary preferential creditor status.
The proposed plan
On July 11, 2022, genomic sequencing company GenapSys Inc. of Redwood City, CA filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 22-10621). The company reports $10 million to $50 million in both assets and liabilities.
In Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings Limited v Arjowiggins HKK2 Limited [2022] HKCFA 11, the Court of Final Appeal has confirmed that the "leverage" created by the prospect of a winding-up – as opposed to the making of a winding-up order – provides a legitimate form of "benefit" for the purposes of satisfying the second of the three "core requirements" for winding up a foreign incorporated company in Hong Kong.
On July 5, 2022, New York-based cryptocurrency exchange, Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc. along with its publicly traded Canadian affiliate, Voyager Digital Ltd., filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 22-10943). The company reports $1 to $10 billion in both assets and liabilities.
On July 5, 2022, Scandinavian airline SAS AB, along with several affiliates, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 22-10925), reporting $10 to $50 billion in assets and $1 to $10 billion in liabilities.
On 28 June 2022 the Insolvency Service published a report it had commissioned from RSM UK to assess the impact that CVAs were having on commercial landlords (the “Report”).
On June 30, 2022, Palo Alto, California-based mobile technology retailer pairing company Enjoy Technology, Inc., along with two affiliates, who provide a revolutionary commerce-at-home experience for consumers through the companies’ network of mobile retail stores, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No.