On 21 October 2013, the financially troubled company Hainan PO Shipping applied for bankruptcy and winding up before the People’s Court of Hainan Yangpu Economic & Development Zone (“Yangpu Court”). The Yangpu Court approved the application on 31 October 2013, and the Court has since nominated the administrators of Hainan PO Shipping.

A December 2012 ruling has effectively called into question the validity of engine leases in Denmark. Ruling in relation to the bankrupt regional airline Cimber Sterling, a judge in the District Court of Sønderborg ordered the trustees of the estate to return seven of the nine engines in question to the engine lessors. However, the two remaining engines, both GE CF34s valued at around USD 2 million each, were to be retained by the trustees as on the date of bankruptcy they had been affixed to the Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft for over three months.

A recent decision of the Federal Court of Australia has found that the arrest of vessels pursuant to existing security rights, such as maritime liens under Australian admiralty legislation, have priority over cross-border insolvency applications under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency.

Introduction

The Court of Appeal recently handed down its much-anticipated judgment in (1) Jetivia S.A. (2) URS Brunschweiler v Bilta (UK) Limited (in liquidation) (2013).

The Supreme Court has ruled that Financial Support Directions issued by the Pensions Regulator against insolvent companies can be claimed as provable debts in the insolvency process. The previous decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal that they were to be paid as insolvency expenses have been overruled.

The decision was handed down in the Court’s judgment on the latest appeal in the long-running Nortel and Lehman saga, which arose out of a grey area in the elaborate statutory system for the funding of defined benefit pension schemes.