On November 1, 2019, reforms to Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) that were announced in Canada’s federal 2019 budget will come into force. Key changes to the insolvency regime include:

The Court of Appeal (CA) recently dismissed an appeal to set aside a statutory demand arising out of the failure to pay margin calls in But Ka Chon v. Interactive Brokers LLC (02/08/2019, CACV 611/2018) [2019] HKCA 873, despite the presence of a mandatory arbitration clause. Obiter comments of the CA put into question the recent case law in Re Southwest Pacific Bauxite (HK) Ltd [2018] 2 HKLRD 449 (the “Lasmos case“) that a petition should “generally be dismissed” in the face of a mandatory arbitration clause.  

Some key points 

On 15 July 2019, UNCITRAL formally approved a new model law (linked here) for enterprise group insolvencies on how to administer group insolvencies across multiple jurisdictions. A lesson learnt from the 2008 global financial crisis when we saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers was the absence of legislation that dealt with group insolvencies. This has been identified as a major gap in UNCITRAL’s model law on cross-border insolvency (MLCBI).

Yeni Gelişmeler

Gelir Vergisi Kanunu ile Bazı Kanunlarda Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun ("Torba Kanun") 19 Temmuz 2019 tarih ve 30836 sayılı Resmi Gazete'de yayımlanarak yürürlüğe girdi. Torba Kanun finansal yeniden yapılandırmaya ve gelir vergisine ilişkin düzenlemeler içeriyor.

Torba Kanun ne getiriyor?

Finansal Yeniden Yapılandırma

Recent Developments 

The Law on the Amendment to the Income Tax Law and Certain Laws (the "Omnibus Bill") entered into force upon its publication on the Official Gazette No. 30836 dated July 19, 2019. The Omnibus Bill includes provisions for financial restructuring and tax related matters.

What’s New?

Financial Restructuring

In complex long-term charters for vessels or finance leases in respect of vessels under the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) and its Article 2A (governing commercial matters relating to finance leases) and under other similar law, a charterer’s or lessor’s damages under a charter or lease— both generally upon a payment default or in the event of a casualty—are often liquidated in stipulated loss value (“SLV”) provisions. These provisions ensure that the lessor/charterer gets the benefit of its bargain.

The Insolvency Working Group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”⁾¹ has been busy this past year, working on three new model laws and developing work on at least two possible future projects.2 The Insolvency Working Group is responsible for drafting the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (the “CBI Model Law”) in 1997, which has since been adopted in 46 countries and is under consideration in several others. In 2005, the United States adopted the CBI Model Law as Chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. 

2018 yazındaki kur şokuyla, "finansal yapılandırma" kavramı hayatımıza girdi.Borçlu şirketin mali yapısının elden geçirilip, mali stratejisinin tekrar belirlenmesi olarak tanımlanabilecek finansal yapılandırma; bir anda finansal kuruluşlarımızın en büyük gündemi haline geldi. İlgili kurumlarımız hemen müdahale edip, yapılandırma için yasal altyapıyı oluşturma yönünde çalışmaya başladı.

The concept of "financial restructuring" was introduced in Turkey following the country's currency crisis in the summer of 2018. Financial restructuring, defined as revising a debtor's financial structure and redetermining its financial strategy, became the major agenda of Turkish financial institutions. Regulators intervened immediately and began working to form the legal infrastructure for restructuring.

The Supreme Court recently limited the ability of debtors to use contract rejection in bankruptcy to shed unwanted trademark licensees. But the Court acknowledged that the result could change if the trademark licensing agreement had different termination rights. Going forward, parties entering into trademark licensing agreements will need to consider this decision carefully as they negotiate termination rights in the event of a bankruptcy by the licensor.