On 23 September the Insolvency Service published responses to its "Review of the Corporate Insolvency Framework consultation" which in May had suggested four key changes to the UK’s corporate insolvency regime:

On November 16, 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (“MGCS”) posted the Fall 2016 report (the “Report”)[1] of the Business Law Advisory Council (the ”Council”), which was formed by the MGCS in March 2016 to put forward recommendations for modernizing Ontario’s corporate and commercial statutes.

On December 10, 2016, Ontario’s Forfeited Corporate Property Act, 2015 (the FCPA), comes into force,1 along with related amendments to the Ontario Business Corporations Act (the OBCA).

The tension between a trustee seeking to facilitate a proposal for the benefit of all creditors and a single creditor being forced to release its rights for the “greater good” was front and center in a recent case before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Facility agreements almost always contain events of default based on a borrower's insolvency. Defining insolvency is therefore key. In this article published in July 2013 we discussed how, following Eurosail¹ , the common law was beginning to move the statutory tests of insolvency towards a more commercial view.

On 25 May 2016, the Insolvency Service published a consultation paper aimed at reforming various aspects of the UK's corporate insolvency regime. It has now collected responses from various interested parties including Dentons. Some proposals focus on the issue of rescue finance, and how to make sure businesses have access to suitable finance to continue to trade out of financial difficulty or achieve a suitable restructuring.

Sultani Decrees

Sultani Decree No. 39/2016

Enacting the Law on the continued validity of the licences of foreign accountancy and audit firms and the exemption of Omani owners of such firms from the full time requirement.

The Law extends the validity of the licences and the exemption up to 31/12/2017 renewable by a decision from the Ministers Council.

Issued on 18 August 2016. Effective from the day after the date of publication.

Sultani Decree No. 40/2016

On 25 May, the Insolvency Service published a consultation paper on options for reform of the UK's corporate insolvency regime. Their impetus is for the UK to remain at the forefront of insolvency best practice to ensure businesses, investors and creditors remain confident that best outcomes can be achieved when faced with financial difficulty, and to give a company the best possible chance to restructure its debts and return to profitability while protecting employees and creditors.

Introduction

A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice serves as a reminder for secured lenders of the importance of perfecting a security interest by registration. Absent perfection, collateral is at risk of seizure by judgment creditors of the borrower. Perfection, however, insures that a creditor has a priority interest in collateral over any subsequent judgment creditor. The decision also shows the importance to vendors of conducting continuous diligence on customers when credit is being extended on a regular basis.

Backround