The Part 26A Restructuring Plans (the "Plans") proposed by each of Virgin Active Holdings, Virgin Active Limited and Virgin Active Health Clubs Limited (the "Plan Companies") have been sanctioned by the court. This decision has been eagerly anticipated by the restructuring and insolvency market, struggling tenants and the beleaguered landlord community.
Directors of companies have been facing, and continue to face, extremely challenging circumstances due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The decisions they have taken through the pandemic to date have been made against a backdrop of unknowns: unknown closure durations, unknown projections and uncertain futures.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been with us now for over 12 months. At the time of writing, we are part way through the third national lockdown. The Government has indicated that schools should start reopening on 8 March 2021, but there is no indication of when non-essential retail will reopen or when the directive to work from home ‘where possible’ will be eased.
In measures that came into effect from 1 December 2020, the Finance Act 2020 dictates that for certain debts, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will now rank much further up the chain of creditors when a company enters administration or liquidation. This is a radical change to a process that had previously ranked HMRC as an unsecured creditor for nearly 20 years.
What was the old system?
Introduction
In R (on the application of KBR, Inc) (Appellant) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Respondent) [2021] UKSC 21 the Supreme Court held that the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") may not compel a foreign company to produce documents held overseas under section 2(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 ("CJA 1987").
In this issue:
Introduction
Towards the end of 2020, while businesses were reeling from the challenges of grappling with a global pandemic, the end of the Brexit transition period and LIBOR transition, the Law Commission published a paper analysing the current law underlying intermediated securities - Intermediated securities: who owns your shares? A Scoping Paper.
China Huiyuan Juice Group Limited [2020] HKCFI 2940 (date of decision: 19 November 2020)
The Hong Kong courts have developed over time three core requirements by reference to which the court assesses whether or not a good reason for making a winding-up-order against a foreign incorporated company in Hong Kong has been demonstrated.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd [2020] UKSC 31 of 15 July 2020 provided much needed clarity on the scope of the rule against “reflective loss”.
Throughout the current pandemic, there have been remedies available to commercial landlords in relation to unpaid rent arrears and other tenant breaches - though the introduction of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 had a significant impact on