The New Year seems to be starting with a bang for the ILS industry.  On January 23rd, KKR announced it had taken a 24.9% stake in Nephila.  Earlier in the month Validus reported a $400 million capital raise to fund investments in collateralized reinsurance and ILS.  In a transaction on which Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP advised Transatlantic Re, Transatlantic Re in December acquired a minority interest in Pillar Capital Management and announced a strategic partnership with Pillar, a manager of funds investing in collateralized reinsurance and ILS.

The Moldovan Parliament adopted a new insolvency law on 29 June 2012. The In-solvency Act No. 149 (Act No. 149), which will enter into force on 14 March 2013, is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, as its main goal appears to be the optimiza-tion of the existing insolvency procedures.

Following the new act’s entry into force, insolvency cases shall fall under the compe-tence of the court of appeal where the seat of the debtor is located. Also each such court of appeal shall hold a public register of insolvency cases.

Timing

In Ollerenshaw and Reeh v the Financial Services Authority (the FSA), former directors of the Black and White Group Limited (in liquidation) (B&W), challenged decisions of the FSA in a reference to the Upper Tribunal.

On October 16, 2012, the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned decisions of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado and the United States District Court for the District of Colorado that had cast doubt as to whether a lender could enforce a security interest in the proceeds from the sale of a borrower’s FCC broadcast license. The case, Valley Bank and Trust Company v. Spectrum Scan, LLC (In re Tracy Broadcasting Corp.), 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 21505 (10th Cir. Colo. Oct.

The Austrian Act on Financial Collateral (Finanzsicherheiten-Gesetz; FinSG), which regulates the granting and enforcement of financial collateral arrangements between participants in the financial markets, has recently been amended with effect from 30 June 2011. Changes include the extension of the scope of application of the law.

Since the enactment of the new insolvency law in 2006, its proceedings have been amended many times to improve and simplify bankruptcy. In the past few years, the economic downturn has caused more and more companies to request court protection with the hope of undergoing reorganisation, realising that insolvency need not be the death of the company but, rather, a second chance.

The means of obtaining information on a person’s creditworthiness were broadened in 2011 by launching a pending execution proceedings register kept by the Bulgarian Private Bailiffs Chamber.

Capital measures are common reorganisation measures when a capital company is in financial crisis, including eg injection of fresh capital by way of a capital increase. The implementation of capital measures during financial crisis is often a source of dispute amongst shareholders, in particular if the capital measures are driven by a financially strong majority shareholder.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled on whether section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code exempts payments for electricity provided under a requirements contract from avoidance as preferences. At least where the facts match those of the subject case, MBS Mgmt. Serv., Inc. v. MXEnergy Elect., Inc., No. 11-30553, 2012 WL 3125167 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2012), such payments are exempt.

The Slovenian legislation includes the following types of in rem securities relating to: (i) real properties – mortgage (hipoteka), land debt (zemljiški dolg), real encumbrance (stvarno breme); and (ii) movables and property rights, respectively – pledge (zastavna pravica), retention of title (pridržek lastninske pravice), transfers by way of security (prenos v zavarovanje), and assignment by way of security (odstop v zavarovanje).