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On 26 June 2020 the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) came into force. The Act included far-reaching wholescale reforms to the UK’s restructuring toolbox, including the introduction of the restructuring plan, which has the potential to be a gamechanger for restructurings.

It also included temporary measures dealing with COVID-19 impacts on companies. The two most significant temporary measures for companies facing financial difficulties as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic were:

As the coronavirus pandemic began spreading through Europe in the early months of 2020, the authorities had little idea of how best to respond – both to the virus itself, and its impact on livelihoods and businesses.

But since then, Europe’s major economies have introduced a suite of measures to contain COVID-19’s spread and keep the economic fallout from social restrictions to a minimum.

On 30 July 2020, the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) came into operation. The IRDA is an omnibus legislation housing all of Singapore’s insolvency and restructuring laws in one single piece of legislation.

The general framework of the IRDA has been discussed in the first article in our series of articles covering the various aspects of IRDA and can be found here.

Following the global implementation of stay-at-home orders in response to the novel coronavirus, businesses suffered unprecedented declines in demand. As the United States struggles to reign in the contagion, a number of household names – from Chuck E. Cheese to J.C. Penney – have filed for bankruptcy. Logically, distressed M&A transactions should rise as corporations struggle under historic levels of debt, but who is poised to take advantage of a boom in distressed M&A, what are the new realities of distressed M&A and how will these transactions proceed?

The truism that every crisis brings about opportunities also applies to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Companies that encounter difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, or even have to file for insolvency, will have to seek equity investors or joint venture partners, or otherwise sell parts or, in worst cases, all of their business operations. This provides ample opportunities for corporate buyers to enter a new market or expand their existing business or portfolio – for an attractively low price.

On 30 July 2020, the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) came into operation. The IRDA is an omnibus legislation housing all of Singapore’s insolvency and restructuring laws in one single piece of legislation.

The general framework of the IRDA has been discussed in the first article in our series of articles covering the various aspects of IRDA and can be found here.

In light of the fast moving pace of developments on COVID-19, and the varying degrees to which information is available to our clients in the projects & construction sector in relation to its impact on their operations, we will be circulating a regular update that addresses the following:

Introduction

An arbitral award is sufficient evidence to commence an insolvency involuntary proceeding against a debtor.[1]

With this case law a door has been opened to an alternative remedy: securing the debt recognized under an arbitration award through insolvency proceedings, and use this course of action to push the debtor to eventually settle.

In this article, we will address:

On 30 July 2020, the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) came into operation. The IRDA is an omnibus legislation housing all of Singapore’s insolvency and restructuring laws in one single piece of legislation.

The general framework of the IRDA has been discussed in the first article in our series of articles covering the various aspects of IRDA and can be found here.

The Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Bill was passed in the Parliament on 1 October 2018 and assented to by the President on 31 October 2018. Today, i.e. 30 July 2020, the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) will finally come into effect. In this article, which is the first of five in a series of articles covering various aspects of IRDA, we will provide an overview of its main features.

History of Singapore’s insolvency regime