This briefing note provides an overview of some of the commercial reasons for and the technical legal requirements of a company wishing to acquire its own shares (also referred to as “share buy-backs”).

The Federal Court has today sensibly ruled that security interests do not vest in the company grantor simply because the company had at some time previously been in liquidation, administration or subject to a deed of company arrangement (DOCA). This decision should come as a great relief to secured lenders and suppliers to companies that have successfully passed through a restructuring and have resumed "business as usual".

Executive summary

On a UK company’s insolvency, the UK tax authority (HMRC) will become a preferential creditor in respect of certain unpaid taxes (Crown Preference) with effect from 1 December 2020. Despite lobbying against the move (including in light of the COVID-19 pandemic), the UK government has persisted with the change, perhaps in an attempt to shore up its tax take.

The reform in context

What is the Cape Town Convention?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Statutory demands are often conflated with other debt recovery mechanisms available to creditors. Whilst a statutory demand may, in certain circumstances, be a useful tool in the debt recovery kit, its primary function is to establish whether a company can pay its debts as they fall due i.e. whether it satisfies the “cash flow test”.

In Guernsey, a company must pass both the cash flow and balance sheet solvency tests to meet the definition of solvency.

Executive Summary

The United Kingdom Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced that certain temporary measures put in place under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA), which became law on 26 June 2020, will be extended.

Statutory Demands and Winding-Up Petitions

Today 'soft touch' provisional liquidation is one of the most commonly deployed tools for facilitating a restructuring of offshore incorporated companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore. However, when soft touch provisional liquidation was first developed by the Bermuda Court for this purpose, it was regarded as a tool of last resort.

The Bankruptcy (Netting, Contractual Subordination and Non-Petition Provisions) (Jersey) Law 2005 (the “Netting Law”) is a short piece of legislation of particular significance to financing transactions involving Jersey counterparties.