Hong Kong’s restructuring scene is one of the most cross-border in the world, with three-quarters of its listed companies incorporated offshore and most restructurings having a mainland China connection. But the territory still lacks a statutory regime for cross-border recognition – as recently brought into focus in the restructuring of Singaporean engineering company CW Group. What does this mean for international insolvencies in the region?
EY's Hunter Kelly and Alan Hudson have been appointed administrators over UK construction services company Interserve, hours after it failed to secure shareholder approval for a restructuring plan.
Kelly and Hudson were appointed over Interserve Plc, the holding company for the Interserve Group, on 15 March after the plan failed to win approval at a shareholders' general meeting earlier the same day.
Singapore’s new restrictions on ipso facto clauses are welcome news to the local restructuring community, and a strong step towards establishing it as one of the region’s premier restructuring hubs. But how will these restrictions affect innocent counterparties and existing commercial contracts, ask partner Guan Feng Chen and associate Jonathan Tang at Morgan Lewis Stamford?
New restrictions on ipso facto clauses
On February 16, 2018, the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an opinion that may prove important for non-defaulting parties to trading contracts. In an appeal arising out of the Linn Energy bankruptcy, the district court held that a party seeking to terminate a safe-harbor contract pursuant to section 556 of the Bankruptcy Code is not restricted by any time limitation, and therefore does not waive its safe-harbor rights if it fails to terminate the contract within a certain amount of time.
By the Law 155/2017, that became effective on November 14, 2017, the Italian Parliament required the Government to adopt, within the next 12 months, a comprehensive and organic reform of insolvency proceedings and rules governing a business crisis. The rules governing liens and security interests will also be reformed.
Although the reform will not be converted into binding law before the end of 2018, foreign lawyers and investors may be interested in knowing the guidelines in advance.
Kai Zeng and Kon M Asimacopoulos, Kirkland & Ellis
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
The purpose and role of ad hoc committees from a debtor’s perspective: the initial phase
Yushan Ng and Helen Ward, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
Chris Howard, Sullivan & Cromwell
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
The relationship of an ad hoc committee with its stakeholder constituency
No power to bind: the importance of the underlying finance documents in relation to decision making
Nick Angel, Peter Newman and Edward Rasp, Milbank LLP
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
Role and powers
Yen Sum and Lucy Cox, Sidley Austin
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
How many committees?
In a capital structure involving multiple external debt tranches, one of the first questions that arises is the number of committees that will be required.