The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill introduces a new standalone moratorium procedure for companies. The moratorium is part of a package of significant legislative reforms contained in the Bill and intended to enhance the UK’s restructuring rescue culture. These were originally consulted on in 2018 and have now been fast-tracked to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rapidly changing impact of COVID-19 on companies and the wider economy presents directors with the unenviable task of balancing the immediate need to secure the survival of their company against the longer-term implications for their stakeholders. In March, the UK Government announced that wrongful trading measures would be temporarily suspended to ease this pressure. The suspension measures are included in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill, which introduces both temporary measures, such as this, and permanent and significant changes to UK insolvency law.
On 23 April 2020, the UK Government announced that the use of statutory demands and winding-up petitions would be restricted to ‘safeguard the UK high street against aggressive debt recovery actions' during the COVID-19 pandemic.
L’art. 1 del cd. Decreto Liquidità prevede come noto la possibilità per imprese di ogni dimensione di accedere a finanziamenti bancari assistiti in misura variabile da garanzia prestata da SACE.
Nel suo articolato, la norma si riferisce alla “impresa beneficiaria” quale destinataria del finanziamento; sono tuttavia numerosi i riferimenti al gruppo di appartenenza di tale impresa, principalmente ai fini del calcolo dei parametri ma anche in relazione ad obblighi (ad esempio l’impegno a non deliberare la distribuzione di dividendi deve riguardare tutte le società del gruppo).
A company’s intellectual property rights[1] are some of its most valuable and most enduring assets. They are also often the most encumbered, or the most enhanced, by contract.
On 22 May 2020, Justice Black of the Supreme Court of NSW issued judgment In the matter of Wollongong Coal Limited and In the matter of Jindal Steel & Power (Australia) Pty Ltd [2020] NSWSC 614. The judgment sets out his Honour’s reasoning for granting the orders sought in a largely unprecedented application to effectively ‘re-enliven’ two schemes of arrangement which automatically terminated prior to being completed.
In Canada, the federal government enacted the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act R.S.C., 1985, c. B-3 (“BIA”), which is intended to relieve honest but unfortunate debtors of their debts and to organize a process that allows for an orderly administration of the estate of the debtors.
The process created by the BIA sets out the duties and obligations of the various stakeholders involved in the insolvency proceeding and it establishes numerous deadlines by which certain tasks are required to be accomplished.
Some of the more salient delays include:
On March 27, 2020, Congress enacted, and President Trump signed into law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide financial relief to individuals and small business harmed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The CARES Act included an initial allocation of $349 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a convertible loan program under Section 7 of the Small Business Act (SBA).
On March 26, 2020, leave to appeal the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal (the “Alberta CA”) in Canada v. Canada North Group Inc.1 (“Canada North Group”) was granted by the Supreme Court of Canada (the “SCC”).2 No reasons were given.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread closures and suspension of operations, including within the justice system in Ontario. Ontario courts have issued a number of notices detailing the changes to regular court operations. In an effort to simplify the complicated situation already facing insolvency practitioners and their clients, we have summarized the current status of court operations germane to bankruptcy and insolvency matters.
Superior Court of Justice