In last week's Government budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that Crown preference would return but that this would be delayed to 1 December 2020. We previously wrote about Crown preference in November 2018 when the Government first suggested its return. That post, which is available here, is a handy summary of what Crown preference is and its impact on secured creditors.

Construction litigation is no stranger to insolvency, including insolvent claimants. This is also the case for adjudication, a fast and commercially driven form of dispute resolution for the construction industry. However, there has been considerable uncertainty as to the enforceability of adjudicators’ awards where a claimant is insolvent and receives a favourable decision. Recent cases have shed some light on this issue and have started to untangle the statutory difficulties when insolvency meets adjudication.

In this week’s update: an update from the Parker Review on board ethnic diversity, the Investment Association sets out its 2020 priorities and a few other items.

Re System Building Services Group Limited [2020] EWHC 54 (Ch)

Summary

A recent High Court ruling has considered the character and extent of directors’ duties in the context of insolvency.

In System Building Services, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Barber (“ICCJ Barber”) considered, amongst other things, the nature of a director’s duties to a company and whether those duties survive the company’s entry into an insolvency process.

2019 has been a busy year for restructuring specialists. Although the UK economy narrowly avoided a recession, a combination of continued domestic and international political uncertainty, decreased consumer confidence and challenging conditions in certain sectors has meant that a number of businesses have gone through restructurings and, in some high-profile cases, insolvency processes during the year.

Introduction

In this week’s update: The court finds that selfdealing by a director and a share buyback were void, the PERG report on compliance with the Walker Guidelines, the BVCA and EY review private equity portfolio company performance, the QCA reports on AIM company corporate governance and a few other items. 

Court confirms self-dealing by director was void

Why are bankruptcy laws needed?

Over the past couple of years, there have been a wave of new insolvency and bankruptcy laws introduced in the GCC. With the exception of Qatar and Kuwait, all other GCC countries have now introduced new bankruptcy laws. As for Oman, its new bankruptcy law is due to come into effect on 1 July 2020.

Being involved with a company which is experiencing financial difficulties is clearly a stressful experience for directors. As well as having to deal with the operational consequences of the company’s distress, directors must ensure that they comply with their duties and obligations under the Companies Act 2006 (CA2006) and the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA1986). Directors of listed entities are in a particularly difficult position, as in addition to those duties they must comply with their obligations to the markets.

Directors’ duties

In this week's update: directors did not need to consider the rights of creditors when declaring a dividend as the company was not insolvent, the Law Commission is seeking views on the law of intermediated securities, polling information can be inside information and a couple of other items.

Court considers whether demerger by dividend was valid (part 4)