1. What is the risk if a counter-party is located in an exiting member state?

What might be the funding risk?

A member state exit is likely to result in increased liquidity problems and less available funding as financial institutions manage their exposure to the Eurozone. Businesses may find that traditional sources of finance (loans, bonds etc) are less easy to obtain or raise.

Intra group funding may also be problematic if there are intra-company loans to subsidiaries located in risk member states and those subsidiaries are having difficulty meeting their payment obligations under such loans.

In late December 2014, Russia adopted major changes to its insolvency (bankruptcy) law. Critically, the changes introduced the long-awaited regulation of individual insolvency (personal bankruptcy), with the aim of closing the regulatory gap and supporting individual debtors struggling during Russia's economic downturn.1 Some time has passed since the initial draft law on individual insolvency (personal bankruptcy) was first delivered to the Russian Parliament back in 2012.

Nigel Barnett talks about bribes and other proprietary rights in insolvencies.

Introduction

For over 150 years, it has been a principle of English law that if an agent takes a bribe or a secret commission, he is liable to account to his principal for the amount received. However, there has been conflicting authority and academic debate as to whether the principal merely has a personal claim against the agent or whether he can assert a proprietary claim to the monies received and any profits made therefrom.

This article first appeared in the December 2014 edition of Corporate Rescue & Insolvency journal. Written by Deepak Reddy in Dentons' New York office, Carlo Vairo in Dentons’ Toronto office and Alexander Hewitt in Dentons' London office.

Key Points

When undergoing a restructuring, a borrower/officeholder's main focus is often the company's lenders. However, there are occasions when HMRC's agreement can be just as key to ensuring any process runs smoothly. In this article, Sonia Jordan and Hayley Çapani discuss some key areas where HMRC's agreement is essential to ensuring a smooth restructuring or insolvency process.

This newsletter refers to Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy news of November 2014.

H.A.M.A.C: adoption de la première sauvegarde accélérée

Le 19 septembre 2014, le tribunal de commerce de Nanterre a ouvert la toute première procédure de sauvegarde accélérée au bénéfice de H.A.M.A.C, la société holding du groupe Alma Consulting, auquel appartient le cabinet de conseil Alma Consulting Group.

Again, of interest to all schemes providing defined benefits is the recent settlement in the litigation involving the Lehman Brothers Scheme, where the payment of £184 million, representing costs of the buying-out benefits, has been agreed.

Following a detailed investigation by TPR commencing in 2008, and a legal battle through the hierarchy of courts up to the Supreme Court (SC), members of the Lehman Brothers Pension Scheme will receive their full benefits after a settlement was reached on 18 August 2014.

Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust and another v. Birmingham City Council [2014] EWHC 2207

Summary

A landlord is liable for business rates where a tenant's lease is disclaimed, even if the landlord does not take possession of the property following a disclaimer.

Background

The Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Group considers the English law position.

Wrongful Trading