Introduction

From an investor's standpoint, a robust and effective bankruptcy regime is a prerequisite for the development of the corporate debt market. However, the existing insolvency and bankruptcy framework is highly fragmented, which has led to complex issues on how to reconcile various statutes with one another.

Parent company guarantees and performance bonds are typically used in the construction and engineering industries to provide a developer with some security in the event that the contractor breaches the building or engineering contract or, in some circumstances, upon the contractor's insolvency.

In the current economic climate, contractor default is, unfortunately, even more prevalent in the construction and engineering industries, and so the issues surrounding parent company guarantees and performance bonds are very much in focus for developers.