On 26 May 2020, the Dutch Lower House adopted the long-awaited legislative proposal regarding the Dutch scheme (Wet Homologatie Onderhandsakkoord (WHOA)).

This is an important step towards the entry into force of the proposal. The Senate still needs to approve, but this can usually be done much quicker and less debate is expected.

The Senate will discuss the procedure of the treatment on 2 June 2020. Once the Senate has voted and it becomes clear when the WHOA comes into force, we will post a new update.

A company in liquidation served a creditor’s statutory demand for debt where there was a genuine dispute about the existence of the alleged debt. The statutory demand was set aside by the Court and the liquidators were ordered to personally pay costs on an indemnity basis.

What happened

In SJG Developments Pty Limited v NT Two Nominees Pty Limited (in liquidation) [2020] QSC 104:

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill has been introduced to Parliament. MPs will consider all stages of the Bill on 3 June 2020 and it will then progress to the House of Lords. The Bill is subject to the fast-track procedure as it aims to give companies flexibility and breathing space to continue trading in the COVID-19 crisis rather than entering into insolvency.

In addition to the crisis-related measures, there are three key areas of the Bill which will affect financial services companies and their arrangements with customers:

As the business world starts to count the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government measures taken to contain it, attention is turning to the tools available to help companies that have been financially impacted.

Many companies are deferring payments to conserve liquidity, raising difficult questions around directors’ duties and leading to an immediate focus on how to protect the business from resulting creditor action.

As directors consider how to meet their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic, the safe harbour provisions may provide some protection from insolvent trading liability.

Introduction

The English Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in the Debenhams case, on which we acted. A copy of the judgment can be downloaded here. This upholds the decision of the High Court, which followed the earlier decision in Carluccio’s.

The ramifications of COVID-19 are being felt by businesses, and not-for-profits and charities are no exception. Key changes and considerations for not-for-profits and charities are outlined in this article.

Introduction

This note sets out the duties of the following directors of French companies with a particular focus on the duties owed by such directors of companies in financial difficulties:

The declaration of the state of emergencybecause of the COVID-19 crisis will significantly increase the number of applications for insolvency in Spain.

Measures proposed by the General Council of the Judiciary (Consejo General del Poder Judicial) (GCJ) are designed to streamline insolvency proceedings in order to facilitate the continuity of the business activity of insolvent companies or, at least, to enable them to obtain the maximum performance from the sale of their assets.

In this context, the GCJ measures appear to be based on two principles:

As part of the package of measures to mitigate the effects of the corona crisis, the German Bundestag has fast-tracked an act to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil law, insolvency law, and the law on criminal procedure, adopting it into law on 25 March 2020. 

The act contains a civil law moratorium that benefits parties who owe certain forms of contractual performance where the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them into the position that they cannot meet their contractual obligations.