The UK government has extended its suspension of various rules and procedures affecting distressed businesses as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, with the UK lockdown easing on a rolling basis up to 21 June 2021, these may be the last of the blanket extensions across all of these areas. Expect the gradual reintroduction of some of the rules and procedures from 1 July onwards.
The Extensions to the End of June 2021
On March 27, 2021, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act (the Extension Act). The Extension Act temporarily extends certain COVID-19 bankruptcy relief provisions enacted as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act), which were further amended and/or extended as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (the CAA). Certain of the amendments included in the CAA and the Extension Act are highlighted below:
Debtors and Paycheck Protection Program Loans
On 18 March 2021, the UK Government published its long-awaited white paper on restoring trust in audit and corporate governance.
This follows a series of high-profile audit errors and major corporate collapses, including those of BHS in 2016 and Carillion in 2018, which led the Government to commission three independent reviews into different aspects of the UK’s audit, reporting and corporate governance systems.
The white paper targets large listed and AIM-listed companies, and large private companies where there is a public interest, and primarily focuses on:
On 26 June 2020 the UK Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) came into force. The Act marked the most significant insolvency reforms in a generation – introducing new permanent restructuring tools (such as the restructuring plan and the moratorium). It also introduced two temporary measures (see our blog post here) specifically dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on companies:
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) recently issued its draft guidance on its approach to investigating and prosecuting the new criminal offences under the Pension Schemes Act 2021. In this blog post, we share our thoughts on the level of comfort that might be gleaned in relation to criminal risk if the draft guidance were finalised in its current form, focusing on the particular concerns that would remain for restructuring activity.
Background
The Spanish Government has extended the various support measures aimed at helping Spain deal with the economic impact of COVID-19.
This blog post summarises the most relevant new insolvency measures of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021 (‘the RDL’), which was approved on 12 March 2021 and entered into force on 13 March 2021.
Debtor's duty to file for insolvency
The deadline to file for voluntary insolvency has been extended until 31 December 2021 (the previous deadline was 14 March 2021).
The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany is significantly affecting commercial landlords and tenants. The German legislator has taken various measures to mitigate the consequences of officially ordered business closures during lockdown and other pandemic-related adverse effects.