The English Supreme Court has handed down its long-awaited judgment in Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd. The key issue the case has dealt with is the scope of the reflective loss principle in English law. This might not mean much to the average person, but the decision is potentially ground-breaking for creditors of companies seeking justice. This short article explains why.
The reflective loss principle
With data privacy issues constantly in the news, what do businesses need to know about handling personal information when they’re considering bankruptcy, especially if some personal information – like customer records – may be a valuable asset?
The Finance Act 2020 provides that directors, managers, shareholders, lenders and others can be made jointly and severally liable for the outstanding tax debts of insolvent (or potentially insolvent) companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
The High Court in London gave judgment on Friday, 3 July 2020 on the relative ranking of over $10 billion of subordinated liabilities in the administrations of two entities in the Lehman Brothers group.
At present, global businesses face huge amounts of uncertainty owing to the Covid-19 crisis that is influencing the global economy in an unprecedented manner. From contractual supply chain issues, which have led to the activation of force majeure clauses, among others, to employment issues, insurance disputes, and the real and imminent threat of insolvency of counterparties, businesses need to take quick, effective steps to avoid trouble in these difficult times.
The new UK legislation for companies in financial difficulty represents a fundamental shift in approach to restructuring in Europe and adds an important new tool to the UK restructuring framework. The availability of a plan proposed under the new Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (a “Restructuring Plan”) will undoubtedly change how many distressed companies seek to address their financial difficulties. However, until case law is developed, there will remain considerable uncertainty as to how the Restructuring Plan will work in practice.
On Wednesday 20 May, the Government published the highly anticipated Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the “CIGB”). It legislates for the landmark changes to the UK’s corporate insolvency regime and the temporary suspension of the statutory provisions on wrongful trading announced by the Business Secretary on 28 March 2020 (see Weil’s European Restructuring Watch update of 30 March 2020).
Today, the Government published the highly anticipated Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the “CIGB”). It legislates for the landmark changes to the UK’s corporate insolvency regime and the temporary suspension of the statutory provisions on wrongful trading announced by the Business Secretary on 28 March 2020 (see Weil’s European Restructuring Watch update of 30 March 2020).
Shareholders in FTSE 250 company TI Fluid Systems yesterday voted down the company’s proposal to pay a £27 million dividend. In a highly unusual move, 57 per cent of shareholders in the motor part manufacturer used their votes to block the dividend payment which had been recommended by the board just four days earlier. It followed critical media coverage of the proposal, which centred on the fact that the company was making the payment while furloughing staff and cutting workers’ pay and would have resulted in a payment of almost £15 million to US private equity firm Bain Capital.
On Wednesday 29 April the Outer House of the Court of Session in Edinburgh issued an opinion sanctioning two schemes of arrangement proposed by Premier Oil Plc and Premier Oil UK Limited (together, Premier Oil) (the Schemes). The Court addressed multiple grounds of challenge and did so without hearing live evidence, despite disputes of fact between the parties.