The recent restructuring of the Norwegian Group by the Irish High Court helpfully clarifies the application of the Cape Town Convention in Irish restructuring. It is also an interesting case study regarding the circumstances in which the Irish courts will restructure a group of companies, which is not headquartered in Ireland.

Mr. O’Neill held a Buy-Out-Bond (BOB) with a pension provider. The retirement options were standard for such a product; allowing for the purchase of annuity, or investment in an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) or Approved (Minimum) Retirement Fund (AMRF) as well as providing for taxable and non-taxable lump sum entitlements. Mr. O’Neill denied any entitlement of his official assignee (OA) in bankruptcy in exercising the retirement options provided by his pension where a Bankruptcy Payment Order (BPO) pursuant to s85 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988 (Act) had not been obtained.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment commenced a public consultation process on 8 February 2021, in relation to proposed legislation which will allow for a new restructuring procedure for the rescue of small companies.

It is a basic principle of the law of corporate insolvency that the assets of a company are effectively frozen for the benefit of all of the company’s creditors when a liquidator is appointed. The principle is provided for under Section 602 of the Companies Act 2014. It provides that any disposition of company property, which includes the sale of shares in the company and the charging of company property, that is done without the sanction of the liquidator or a director who has retained the power to do so, will be void unless the court otherwise orders.

Last week saw the government further extend COVID-19 emergency insolvency provisions until 31 March 2021. Since April, these have:

Irish landlords to former Monsoon stores in Dublin and Cork have won their High Court claim that their leases with the fashion retailer remained in full force despite the existence of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in the UK.

Background

On 3 July 2019, a CVA was approved in the UK by 84 % of Monsoon’s creditors. None of the Dublin or Cork landlords attended the meeting either in person or by proxy.

What are the principal types of insolvency proceedings?

In our previous update dated 5 November 2020, we looked at when it is reasonable for insolvency practitioners to continue litigation. In this article, we explore the circumstances in which personal costs orders may be made against liquidators.

Key points

Today, new legislation comes into force* that provides directors of companies in financial difficulty with a second breathing space from the financial impact of the wrongful trading provisions.

On 26 June 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (Act) came into force with changes to insolvency law to help businesses manage the economic implications of Covid-19. The new Act’s permanent measure on continuing supply stands out for the construction industry.