The Irish High Court has determined that the liquidation of an Irish aircraft leasing company, which was a 100% subsidiary of a Russian company expressly subject to EU sanctions, rebuts the presumption that the company was controlled by the Russian parent for the purpose of EU sanctions.

This enables the liquidators to deal with the assets without costly and time-consuming derogation applications.

Background

This article is a part one of two series that explores the key issues we have recently seen and the case law arising in Misfeasance and Wrongful Trading claims.

Introduction

What is Wrongful Trading?

Selon Paul Chollet, économiste de Crédit Mutuel Arkea 2024 sera "une année noire" avec un record de défaillances d’entreprises en France. Cela fait maintenant 3 ans que les économistes prédisent un ras-de-marrée de défaillances. Cela étant, avec près de 49.000 de défaillances en France sur 12 mois glissants, il y a une tendance à un retour aux chiffres de 2019.

Il est donc indispensable de rappeler que des procédures de prévention (mandat ad hoc et la conciliation) sont là pour traiter les difficultés en amont de la défaillance.

The restructuring of Casino Group, one of France's top 6 retailers, is at the point of reaching a favourable outcome. An agreement is expected at the end of July 2023. The commonalities between the restructuring of Casino and Orpéa are the preservation of secured debt, the conversion of unsecured debt into capital, asset disposals and, of course, a significant injection of new money.

Looking at the most recent figures on corporate insolvencies makes for worrying reading for landlords and occupiers alike, with overall numbers now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Overall, corporate insolvencies increased by 17% in England and Wales since February 2022 and were a third higher than in February 2020.

Irish company law provides that if a charge granted by a company is not registered in the Companies Registration Office (CRO) within 21 days of its creation, it is void against a liquidator and any creditor of the company. There is a duty imposed on a company which grants a charge to register the charge in the CRO but the creditor taking the charge can also do so.

Diamond Rock Developments Ltd (the Company) granted a mortgage over a property. That mortgage was registered in the Land Registry but was not registered in the CRO.

If you supply goods, the simplest step that you can take to reduce your exposure to a customer’s insolvency is to use effective retention of title (RoT).

However not all RoT clauses are effective and we see many RoT claims rejected in insolvency.

By default, once you sell goods on credit:

• the goods belong to the customer; and
• the customer owes you the purchase price.

This means that if an insolvency practitioner (IP) is appointed to the customer:

A large number of UK companies are in significant financial distress at the moment.

Concern amongst sports aficionados around the financial integrity of the sports industry was raised in late 2022 when rugby union was the latest sport to be dragged into the insolvency conversation. Both Wasps RFC (Wasps) and Worcester RFC (Worcester, and together with Wasps, the Clubs), who can each trace their history back to the mid-19th century, appointed administrators after facing financial difficulties they attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns.

Corporate Enforcement Authority Issues Helpful Guidance Note

The Preventative Restructuring Directive

In July 2022, the European Union (Preventive Restructuring) Regulations 2022 (the Regulations) transposed the requirements of EU Directive 2019/1023 (the Preventative Restructuring Directive) into Irish law.

Certain of the consequential amendments to the Companies Act 2014 (the Act) relate to the duties and responsibilities that directors of companies have in circumstances of financial difficulty and/or insolvency.