Justice Black in In the matter of Boart Longyear Limited[2017] NSWSC 537 has confirmed that section 411(16) of the Corporations Act 2011 (Cth) (the Act), can be used to provide companies proposing schemes of arrangement with appropriate protections from its creditors in a form that can be recognised under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code.

The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) applies to security interests in personal property including, but not limited to:

The New South Wales Supreme Court has found that a secured party cannot rely on its own mistake when registering on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) to claim that the defective registration “temporarily perfects” its security interest.

The facts

Today, thanks to the high-cost of current court fees, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face the problem of not getting paid by a customer and then, subsequently, not being able to go to court to get paid.

On 6 April 2017, the Insolvency Rules 2016 came into force. The new rules aim to modernise the insolvency process; and make it more efficient. Physical meetings, as the default decision making process, have been abolished. Where the debtor ‘customarily’ communicated with a creditor by way of email notices can be served by email under deemed consent, rather than through the post. The rules also introduce the use of websites to publish notices, without the need to inform creditors of any postings.

The Supreme Court of Queensland has delivered a significant judgement concerning the obligations of liquidators to cause an insolvent company to incur the costs of complying with State environmental laws, in priority to other unsecured creditors.

On instructions from the liquidators of Linc (Stephen Longley, Grant Sparks and Martin Ford of PPB Advisory) JWS made an application for directions in respect of both the liquidators’ and Linc’s environmental obligations in Queensland.

Section 433 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Act) concerns the payment to employees as priority creditors by a receiver from the assets subject to a circulating security interest. The provision in large part mirrors the payment waterfall contained in section 556 that applies in a winding-up.

When someone is made bankrupt, all property owned by them, at the date of bankruptcy, forms part of the bankruptcy estate. Property not only includes physical assets, such as goods, land and money, but also intangible assets, such as a cash balance with a bank, debts, benefits under contracts, legacies and causes of action. These assets are known as ‘things in action’. The bankruptcy estate vests in a trustee in bankruptcy upon appointment.

There are a number of reasons why liquidators might want to slow things down when it comes to commencing or prosecuting proceedings. A liquidator might want more time to fully investigate certain claims or secure appropriate funding before incurring substantial costs or adverse costs exposure. While there are options available to liquidators looking to delay either the commencement or service of a particular proceeding, each comes with its own risks.

The Federal Government has released the Exposure Draft for the much anticipated introduction of: