The majority of businesses have periods of stress and distress during their life cycle. The keys to managing these periods to achieve a successful profitable business are recognition, decision and implementation.
In most cases, management are aware (from available internal management information) of issues arising before they do in terms of a potential reduction in revenue or increase in cost. Once these periods are recognised management can move to address them by taking decisions to manage the situation to a positive outcome.
On June 1, 2013, British Columbia's new Limitation Act (the "New Act")1 came into force, changing the limitation periods for filing civil lawsuits in British Columbia.
The judgment handed down on 6 June 2013 by the Court of Appeal in the case of The Trustees of the Olympic Airlines SA Pension and Life Assurance Scheme v Olympic Airlines SA [2013] EWCA Civ 643 reversed a High Court decision made in May 2012 that a winding up order could be granted in the UK in respect of Olympic Airlines, the Greek national airline, which was in liquidation in Greece as a result of it receiving illegal state aid and the privatisation of the airline business.
The Landlords of units occupied by Game have been given permission by the Court to appeal to the Court of appeal against the principles laid down in Goldacre (Offices) Ltd v Nortel Networks UK Ltd (In Administration) [2009] EWHC 3389 (Ch) [2010] Ch 455 that rent falling due before the commencement of an administration does not fall to be paid as an expense of the administration.
A recent decision of Mr Justice Mann in VLM Holdings Limited v Ravensworth Digital Services Limited [2013] EWHC 228 (Ch) held it is possible that termination of a head licence on insolvency of the licensor does not necessarily mean a sub-licence becomes ineffective.
What was it all about?
The highly anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Re: Indalex was released this morning.
Here are the key highlights:
Frost & Sullivan has recently predicted that 4% of all sales (the equivalent of 4.5million units) of new cars will be online purchases by 2020. This compares to 5,000 new cars sold solely online in 2011. An implication of this, should they wish to avoid a similar fate to the likes of HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster, is that car retailers are going to have to make adjustments to their selling processes in order to avoid showrooms becoming mere browsing opportunities for customers to pick and chose but purchase online.
On July 6, 2012, in Lightsquared LP (Re),1 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the "Ontario Court"), released reasons that clarify the criteria for the identification of the centre of main interest ("COMI") of an applicant seeking recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings as "Foreign Main Proceedings" pursuant to Section 46 of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA").2
You are about to enter a new dimension. A world not only of law and of the Insolvency Act 1986, but of equity. You are about to enter… The Twilight Trust Zone!
Cash-flow is the life blood of a company. As a company fails the flow of this vital sustenance grows weaker. The heart stutters and fails. The company is dying. Worse, it is unable to meet its liabilities as they fall due, and so fails one of the statutory tests of insolvency.