New legislation hit the statue books on Wednesday bringing updates to the legislation governing special administrations for regulated water companies in England and Wales. The changes are timely (some may even consider them overdue) given the current market instability, and provide flexible options should the regime have to be used.

According to Section 1445 of the Belgian Judicial Code (JC), any creditor can, on the basis of authentic or private documents, levy a (conservatory) garnishment on the sums or goods a third party owes to its debtor. After notification of the garnishment order, the third-party garnishee can no longer hand over these sums and/or goods to the debtor (Section 1451 JC).

Conservatory garnishments are typically used by creditors to put pressure on their debtor (eg notifying a garnishee order to a debtor’s bank, which then freezes the debtor’s accounts).

Limiting Liability of Administrators for Employee Wages

Walley IMO PGP Group (Aust) Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 1554 ("PGP Group") and Crosbie IMO Godfreys Group Pty Ltd [2024] FCA 60 ("Godfreys")

Voluntary administrators have been able to seek orders releasing them from their personal liability for debts incurred by them in the course of conducting a company's business. That relief has been available where it has been necessary to support the continuing operation of that business.

Lenders Beware: Security Vulnerable as an unreasonable director-related transaction

Cooper as Liquidator of Runtong Investment and Development Pty Limited) v CEG Director Securities Pty Limited [2024] FCA 6. ("CEG")

Introducción

Esta edición de las píldoras concursales, como ya es tradicional, incluye sentencias hechas públicas en los meses de diciembre y enero. Preferimos no enviarlas ahora en lugar de a finales de diciembre porque creemos este es mejor momento para su lectura.

In the first Part 26A appeal decision since the inception of the restructuring plan in 2020, the Court of Appeal has set aside the restructuring plan sanction order that was granted to German real estate group, Adler.

Fiduciary Duties of Receivers

Receivers appointed to enforce a security owe their fiduciary duties to their appointor and not to the mortgagor. So, when realising the assets of the mortgagor, the receivers can focus their attention on pursuing that course of action which, as they judge it, is best calculated to optimise the position of their appointor; Salmon v Albarran [2023] NSWSC 1238 ("Salmon").

On December 12, 2023, in the case of In re Envision Healthcare Corp., Case No. 23-90342, Judge Christopher M. López of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas determined that Section 541 of the Bankruptcy Code conflicts directly with, and therefore trumps, Section 18-304 of the Delaware LLC Act to prevent the termination of a member’s interests in a Delaware limited liability company arising from such member’s bankruptcy filing.

Summary of Section 18-304 of the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act (LLC Act)

Following the Government's response to the UNCITRAL consultation (see our briefing here) - which suggests that, for a while at least, the rule in Gibbs is here to stay - we expect to see an increase in parallel proceedings being used when multijurisdictional corporate groups seek to restructure their debt.

Över 8 200 företag försattes i konkurs under 2023, vilket innebär en ökning med 31 procent jämfört med föregående år, enligt statistik från Creditsafe. 2023 går till historien som det högsta konkursåret sedan Creditsafe började med sina mätningar 1999.

Konkursstormen som pågått i sjutton månader har drabbat både stora och små företag i alla län och branscher. Värst drabbat är sportsektorn, bilhandlare och bygg. Under året gick 1,08 procent av Sveriges aktiebolag i konkurs. Höga konkurstal kommer fortsätta prägla 2024.