Since publishing our first article about the impact of Covid-19 on commercial contracts the Government has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill, which is set to bring in a number of sweeping changes to UK insolvency law.

Questions from a landlord's perspective

My Tenant has asked for a rent holiday. I want to help them out at this time - how can I facilitate this?

Most landlords and tenants are working well together to reach agreement in respect of rent, either moving rental payments to monthly rather than quarterly in advance, or deferring rental obligations for a specified period. It is obviously preferable, but not necessarily essential, to have such arrangements documented in writing, as follows:

Gerade im Anbetracht der aus der Corona-Pandemie folgenden Krise stellt sich die Frage: Was passiert mit Token in der Insolvenz, insbesondere, wenn sie von einem Dienstleister für seine Kunden verwahrt werden?

Especially in view of the crisis resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic, the question arises: What happens to tokens in insolvency, especially if they are held in safekeeping by a service provider for his customers?

The UK Government has proposed legislation to address the difficulties faced by UK companies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when it comes to holding meetings of shareholders and filing documents with the UK Registrar of Companies (Companies House).

Lockdown, shutdowns, drops in revenue and related negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic faced by companies even still operating and in a healthy state have prompted the Czech government to respond to this situation and implement statutory measures to mitigate such impacts (the so-called LEX COVID), also in the area of insolvency. Most of such measures are only temporary during the extraordinary measures taken by public authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. LEX COVID, which brings the below-mentioned changes, has already been enacted and came into force on 24 April 2020.

As a director or manager of a UAE company, you will know that like individuals, companies experience times of good health and occasional periods of sickness.

In this note, we focus on you, as directors (which includes managers) of “onshore” limited liability companies (“LLCs”), noting of course that the rules may also apply to certain free zone entities as well. We want you as directors to be certain of your duties and responsibilities in the good times but also sure of the actions you should or could take if things go wrong for your company, and financial difficulties arise.

A government press release issued on 23 April 2020 will be welcomed by commercial tenants up and down the country, particularly those in the retail and leisure industries, but it will not make such welcome reading for landlords.

In the current climate many commercial tenants are having a difficult time and consequently so too are landlords. The government has urged landlords and investors to work collaboratively with high street businesses which have found themselves unable to pay their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Als Teil des gesetzgeberischen Maßnahmenpakets zur Abmilderung der wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie erleichtert das COVID-19-Insolvenzaussetzungsgesetz (COVInsAG) die rechtssichere Finanzierung kriselnder Unternehmen und setzt Anreize an deren Gesellschafterkreise: der Nachrang von Gesellschafterdarlehen und das Erfordernis eines Sanierungsgutachtens sind durch das COVInsAG suspendiert.

In the past few years, many automotive suppliers have been facing increasing financial or operational problems. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these problems and is putting some of these companies in considerable distress. The search for possible solutions is in full swing, and for financial investors or competitors with strong liquidity, there is the opportunity to acquire shares in the companies in crisis or alternatively in individual assets at comparatively favourable conditions.