California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1054 into law today, marking a significant financial commitment by the state to shore up the financial position of California's major investor-owned utilities. The new law establishes a Wildfire Fund of up to $21 billion to provide liquidity for utilities to cover eligible, uninsured third-party damage claims resulting from future catastrophic wildfires. The law also establishes a new framework to encourage and certify utility safety practices intended to reduce the risk of wildfires ignited by power infrastructure.
Windstream Holdings, Inc.’s (“Windstream”) chapter 11 bankruptcy filing following its contentious litigation with Aurelius Capital Management LP (“Aurelius”) has rekindled market participants’ concerns over the effects of so-called “net short debt activism” – the efforts of creditors who, despite holding a borrower’s debt, seem motivated to push the borrower into distress over covenant or other defaults.
On 6 June 2018, the Commercial Court handed down its judgment in Nori Holdings Ltd v Bank Otkritie Financial Corp [2018] EWHC 1343 (Comm), and provided helpful guidance on three important issues:
1. The Court clarified that West Tankers1 remains good law in that parties will not be granted anti-suit injunctions by the English Court to restrain proceedings commenced in other Member States in breach of an agreement to arbitrate, notwithstanding the contrary opinion expressed by Attorney General Wathelet in Gazprom (C-536/13).
milbank.com 1 Client Alert: Close-out Netting Provisions partially held invalid by German Federal Court of Justice General Administrative Act (Allgemeinverfügung) issued by German Federal Supervisory Authority to avoid Legal Uncertainty and Distortions in Financial Markets EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, "BGH") ruled on 9 June 2016 that contractual close-out netting provisions which deviate from section 104 of the German Insolvency Code (Insolvenzordnung) are invalid and section 104 of the German Insolvency Code applies in lieu of the invalid contra
Introduction
A March 8 2016 decision of the influential Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has attracted attention from – and caused concern for – owners of pipelines and other midstream assets, as well as lenders to midstream and upstream lenders across the United States.
On April 17, NewSat Ltd. (NewSat) and various affiliates, including Jabiru Satellite Holdings Pty Ltd., were placed in administration in Australia by the trustee for its lenders, Citicorp International, and related petitions were filed in the U.S.
On March 25, LightSquared Inc. obtained U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to exit Chapter 11 protection pursuant to a restructuring plan that will pay its largest creditor, Charles Ergen, roughly $1.5b in cash to account for full repayment, with interest, of Ergen’s holdings of LightSquared debt.
Most due diligence processes in a business acquisition context require a review of material contracts and, in particular, a review of any restrictions on assignment of those contracts.
When a business enters into a long term commercial contract with a customer, the identity of that particular counterparty may influence the terms of the contract. A party deemed more favourable may obtain a better price or better terms. Unless restricted by enforceable anti-assignment provisions, these favourable contracts can be very valuable in a traditional M&A context.