1. Background and Overview
As described in our Client Alert "The new German business stabilization and restructuring regime ("German Scheme")" dated 12 October 2020, the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection had presented a draft bill (the "Original Bill") to introduce a new business stabilization and restructuring framework - the new "German Scheme" - into German law.
The German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection has recently presented the longawaited draft bill to introduce a new pre-insolvency business stabilization and restructuring regime into German law.1 The availability of this ground-breaking new "German Scheme" will significantly change the German restructuring landscape and elevate it to an internationally competitive level.
On Monday 14th September 2020, Mrs Justice Falk issued her reasoned judgment, in respect of the application by Codere Finance 2 (UK) Limited (the "Company") to convene a single class of its creditors to consider and vote on a proposed scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006 ( the "Scheme").
In a hearing spanning three days, the High Court of England and Wales addressed multiple grounds of challenge from a dissenting noteholder but nonetheless granted the Company's request to convene a single meeting of its scheme creditors.
Background
In the second part of our coverage of the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020 (the Act), we consider amendments made to certain insolvency provisions of the Companies Act 2014 (the 2014 Act). All of these measures apply for an "interim period", expiring on 31 December 2020 (unless extended by Government).
Dividends
1. Background: Temporary Modification of the German Insolvency Regime to avoid COVID-19-related Insolvencies in Germany expires on 30 September 2020
July Bankruptcy and Restructuring Developments
On 21 July 2020 the Irish High Court approved a scheme of arrangement for the world's largest regional aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital DAC (Nordic).
The scheme, which included a 12-month standstill and deferral of c. US$5 billion of secured and unsecured debt, was a market-first for the aircraft leasing industry and has been watched closely by others in the sector.
The Irish scheme had a number of innovative features:
On 21 July 2020, the Irish High Court approved a scheme of arrangement for the world’s largest regional aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital DAC (NAC).
The scheme, which included a 12-month standstill and deferral of c. US$5bn of secured and unsecured debt, is a market-first for the aircraft leasing industry in Ireland whose customer base has been seriously impacted by COVID-19. We look at the NAC scheme of arrangement and consider whether it is a viable restructuring option for the aviation sector more generally.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation has published the general scheme of proposed legislation amending the Companies Act 2014.
On 26 June 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act (the “CIGA”) entered into force. We summarised the key terms of the proposed legislation in our previous client alert (link to previous alert).