In the recent case of Re Avanti Communications Limited (in administration) (Re Avanti), the court considered the nature of fixed and floating charges. Whether a charge is fixed or floating has implications for both lenders and administrators in terms of determining to what extent a chargor can recover from the charged assets and to what extent a borrower can deal with its assets.

Background of case:

In MOAC Mall Holdings v. Transform Holdco, the Supreme Court of the United States addressed whether Section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code―which limits the effect of certain appeals on orders authorizing the sale or lease of bankruptcy estate property―is a jurisdictional provision.

Following a number of recent high-profile collapses of banks in Europe and the United States (notably, Credit Suisse, Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank), not only their investors but also their clients may be considering their position under financing arrangements and applicable insolvency law.

Here are five steps that corporate borrowers can take to protect themselves against the fall-out of their financing banks’ insolvency:

Tijdens het Stibbe Annual Debt Finance seminar dat in februari 2023 op het Stibbe kantoor in Amsterdam werd gehouden, werd onder andere gesproken over de tegenwind op de financiële markten en de gevolgen daarvan voor financieringstransacties. Na een schets van de stand van de financiële markten en de vooruitzichten voor 2023 door Marieke Driesen, sprak Niek Groenendijk over de mogelijkheden voor een kredietnemer om zich te wapenen tegen onvoorziene omstandigheden, de belangen van financiële convenanten en andere valkuilen in de financieringsdocumentatie.

In Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, the Supreme Court of the United States resolved confusion in the lower courts over the scope and application of 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A), which prohibits debtors from discharging debt through bankruptcy when such debt was obtained as a result of fraudulent actions.

Op 12 juli 2022 is het wetsvoorstel Tijdelijke wet transparantie turboliquidatie (het "wetsvoorstel") ingediend. Het wetvoorstel ziet op de tijdelijke aanpassing van de wettelijke regeling omtrent turboliquidatie en bevindt zich nog in de voorbereidingsfase.

In In re Roberts, No. 22-10521, 2022 WL 4592086 (Bankr. D. Colo. Sept. 23, 2022), the Bankruptcy Court of the District of Colorado (the “Bankruptcy Court”) held that a Debtor’s alleged ownership interest in cannabis-related companies did not require a dismissal of the case and that a Chapter 7 trustee could administer the Debtor’s assets. This represents a significant change from prior decisions from this Court, which has usually dismissed any bankruptcy case involving cannabis.

Background

Lawyers occasionally wonder how the law ended up as it is. We had that experience after the Dutch Supreme Court’s decision of 1 July 2022 (Rabobank/Ten Berge q.q.; ECLI:NL:HR:2022:984), regarding the possibility or impossibility of pledging a claim. The Supreme Court decided that claims that have been made non-transferable under property law in a contractual agreement between a creditor and a debtor, cannot be pledged either.

InBailey Tool & Mfg. Co. v. Republic Bus. Credit, LLC, 2021 Bankr. LEXIS 3502 (Bankr. N.D. Tex. Dec. 23, 2021), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas clarified how aggressive a secured lender can be when enforcing its rights. The 145-page opinion details how a lending arrangement went “terribly wrong” and why awarding millions in damages was warranted.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered severe economic shock, particularly in countries like Myanmar that rely heavily on labour-intensive industries. The recent change in the government has added further concerns to the political state of Myanmar. With this recent set of events, we have seen foreign investors and suppliers face difficulty in recovering debts in Myanmar. This Alert sets out actions that may be considered by creditors towards recovering debts from a Myanmar company.

Dispute Resolution