In this week’s update: more details on plans for reforms of governance, audit and executive pay, Companies House is ending its temporary strike-off policy, the court orders virtual meetings on a scheme of arrangement and the FRC calls for participants in a review of company disclosures.

In this week’s update: The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 comes into force, the Government extends company and LLP filing deadlines, new guidance on public health emergency takeover interventions, FCA censure of accompany for historic market abuse and a few other items.

In this week’s update: the test for an LLP member to bring a derivative claim, updated guidance on company meetings, the court sanctions a takeover despite not all beneficial owners being able to vote on the scheme and a few other items.

Covid-19 is affecting the way people conduct their business, retain their staff, engage with clients, comply with regulations and the list goes on. Read our thoughts on these issues and many others on our dedicated Covid-19 page.

In this week’s update: the High Court orders scheme creditor meetings to be held by phone, IA guidance on executive pay and a few other items.

Covid-19 is affecting the way people conduct their business, retain their staff, engage with clients, comply with regulations and the list goes on. Read our thoughts on these issues and many others on our dedicated Covid-19 page.

Court allows scheme meetings to be held electronically

The UK government has announced amendments to certain aspects of insolvency law, designed to enable businesses which have been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak to continue trading while they explore options for rescue or to restructure.

In this week’s update: Guidance on virtual board and committee meetings, updates and guidance on AGMs, pre-emption principles are relaxed and a few other items.

This week, in coronavirus-related news

The Coronavirus Act 2020 is now in force and Section 82 of that Act effecting the postponement of the landlord’s right to forfeit for non-payment of rent is causing consternation amongst both landlords and tenants as they seek to navigate through these uncertain times.

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.

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.

THE ISSUE

In a recent judgment, i.e., on 17 January 2020, the Indian appellate insolvency tribunal, namely, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held in M. Ravindranath Reddy v. G. Kishan, that the lease of immovable property cannot be considered as supply of goods or rendering any services and therefore the due amount cannot fall within the definition of operational debt under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code).