The Government has published its response and action plan following its consultation in March this year on reforming the UK’s corporate governance landscape in the context of insolvent companies.

In its original consultation, the Government put forward various proposals to deal with perceived deficiencies in the management of troubled companies that may be leading to poorer outcomes for creditors, employees and other stakeholders.

In March 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a consultation on proposed reforms to the UK’s insolvency and corporate governance landscape. That consultation included certain significant proposals, including extending liability to the directors of holding companies that sell insolvent subsidiaries.

With international trade rarely making the news in this era of stable foreign relations and respectful international dialogue, you can be forgiven if you are unaware that Canada has entered several trade agreements that require it to protect trade secrets. But can Canada be forgiven for never actually enacting trade secret legislation? Maybe we can because of Canada’s substitute: the common law action for “breach of confidence”.

The High Court has found that two directors and one former director of a company were in breach of their duties by causing the company to implement a reorganisation and a capital reduction when they were aware there was a risk it would lose its source of income.

In addition, the statutory statement of solvency supporting the capital reduction was invalid because the director had not formed the opinion set out in it. As a result, the capital reduction and a subsequent dividend were unlawful, and the directors were liable to repay the dividend.

What happened?

Over the last year, several court decisions have touched on the legislative conflict between taxation authorities and secured creditors in insolvency situations.

The High Court has held that two director-shareholders of a company who were unsuccessfully prosecuted for fraud could not claim back the drop in the value of their shares when the company’s business failed.

What happened?

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published a consultation on insolvency and corporate governance.

The consultation is aimed primarily at improving corporate governance in firms that are in or approaching insolvency. However, it also puts forward proposals for improving the wider framework of corporate governance.

The key proposals from the consultation are set out below.

In a recent decision that is relevant to oil and gas receiverships, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench lifted a stay of proceedings against an insolvent operator to allow the non-operating party to enforce its right to take over operatorship pursuant to the CAPL 2007 Operating Procedure.

We previously published Part 1 of our survey of interesting and important developments in Canadian insolvency and restructuring matters in 2017. This post is the second and final part – with an additional seven highlights and cases. You can also find a printable version containing the complete “Top Insolvency Cases and Highlights from 2017” bulletin on our website.

Top Insolvency Cases and Highlights from 2017 With the passing of another year, McCarthy Ttrault's National Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group takes a look at the trends, leading cases and other insolvency highlights from 2017. This publication puts at your fingertips a summary of the year's biggest insolvency cases and developments from across the country and highlights some of the most talked-about cases and issues from 2017, including deemed trusts, the monitor's role in oppression actions, equitable subordination and more. This report was authored by Heather L.