Hong Kong’s restructuring scene is one of the most cross-border in the world, with three-quarters of its listed companies incorporated offshore and most restructurings having a mainland China connection. But the territory still lacks a statutory regime for cross-border recognition – as recently brought into focus in the restructuring of Singaporean engineering company CW Group. What does this mean for international insolvencies in the region?
EY's Hunter Kelly and Alan Hudson have been appointed administrators over UK construction services company Interserve, hours after it failed to secure shareholder approval for a restructuring plan.
Kelly and Hudson were appointed over Interserve Plc, the holding company for the Interserve Group, on 15 March after the plan failed to win approval at a shareholders' general meeting earlier the same day.
Singapore’s new restrictions on ipso facto clauses are welcome news to the local restructuring community, and a strong step towards establishing it as one of the region’s premier restructuring hubs. But how will these restrictions affect innocent counterparties and existing commercial contracts, ask partner Guan Feng Chen and associate Jonathan Tang at Morgan Lewis Stamford?
New restrictions on ipso facto clauses
A recent Federal Court decision puts administrators on notice that they must carefully consider the consequences of dealing with other people’s assets.
The decision of Justice Perram in White, in the matter of Mossgreen Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) [2018] FCA 471, highlights the care that administrators must take when administering property outside the scope of their authority.
In Mossgreen, administrators were appointed to a company that conducted a business that ran an auction house and gallery.
The Victorian Court of Appeal decides that the Corporations Act priority regime does apply to trading trusts.
The law is now clear. Or is it?
For the last two years and six days, insolvency practitioners and other stakeholders involved in the liquidation of trading trusts have been frustrated by what should be a very straightforward question.
If the company in liquidation carries on business through a trust structure, as many do, what is the order of priorities that the liquidator must apply when making distributions to creditors?
Kai Zeng and Kon M Asimacopoulos, Kirkland & Ellis
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
The purpose and role of ad hoc committees from a debtor’s perspective: the initial phase
Yushan Ng and Helen Ward, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
Chris Howard, Sullivan & Cromwell
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
The relationship of an ad hoc committee with its stakeholder constituency
No power to bind: the importance of the underlying finance documents in relation to decision making
Nick Angel, Peter Newman and Edward Rasp, Milbank LLP
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
Role and powers
Yen Sum and Lucy Cox, Sidley Austin
This is an extract from the first edition of GRR's The Art of the Ad Hoc. The whole publication is available here.
How many committees?
In a capital structure involving multiple external debt tranches, one of the first questions that arises is the number of committees that will be required.