At the end of last year judgment was handed down by Pat Treacy J in a matter notable for the unusual attitudes of a director towards the company’s director’s loan account. By the time the company entered into administration, the loan account was overdrawn to the tune of £1.35m, with the director having withdrawn funds to (amongst other things) finance the purchase and maintenance of a personal yacht.
In light of a number of recent High Court decisions, Andy Creer considers the approach of the Court when considering an application for a speedy trial.
At present, Hong Kong does not have any statutory corporate rescue regime. A financially distressed company may try to rescue its business by entering into (i) private debt restructuring agreement(s) with its major creditors; or (ii) a scheme of arrangement under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622), which allows for a compromise between the company and its shareholders and creditors.
Two recent decisions of the Honourable Mr Justice Harris are helpful additions to the growing amount of case law in this jurisdiction dealing with cross-border insolvency issues and are worthy of examination.
Hong Kong Companies Court appoints provisional liquidators for the purpose of seeking recognition in Mainland for the first time
This note considers the way in which the practice directions governing insolvency proceedings have evolved during 2020.
In the recent case of Re Shum Tung Lam formerly known as Shum Wan Man [2020] HKCFI 1720, the Court of First Instance was asked to clarify the requirements under section 30A(6) of the Bankruptcy Ordinance (Cap. 6) (BO) which governs objections made by creditors or trustees to the automatic discharge of a bankrupt from bankruptcy.
In this article, we examine the repercussions of Debenhams Retail Ltd, Re [2020] EWCA Civ 600
Background
Oliver Hyams and Amy Held investigate the recent case of Islandsbanki Hf & Ors v Stanford [2020] EWCA Civ 480.
Background
Adjudication is a quick and comparatively cheap method of dispute resolution and for those reasons is attractive to insolvent companies seeking to recover debts. However, a respondent was likely to be able to restrain the insolvent company from referring the matter to adjudication on the basis that it would be futile to do so, since any positive decision was unlikely to be enforced as a result of the very fact of the company’s insolvency. Therefore, any award lacked practical utility. Following the decision of the Supreme Court in Bresco v Lonsdale, that is no longer the case.
Following the posting of the article I co-wrote with Morayo Fagborun-Bennett on the Recovery of Commercial and Residential Rent Arrears, there have been a couple of developments of note.