The impact of Covid-19 has been felt across the commercial property sector; nowhere more acutely, perhaps, than in "bricks and mortar" retail and hospitality.
Even pre-pandemic, the high street was being forced to adapt to the growth of eCommerce. But consecutive lockdowns have expedited the shift; for some, that change will be irreversible.
引言
香港法院最近在Re Ando Credit Ltd [2020] HKCFI 2775一案中，首次批准一家香港公司任命临时清盘人[1]，并明确旨在允许该临时清盘人向中国内地法院寻求内地法律的承认和执行。
The last 12 months have seen frenetic changes in the field of insolvency law. Some of the changes in 2020 were already in the pipeline before we'd even heard of coronavirus but were accelerated by it, some were brought in purely in response to the pandemic and others had nothing to do with it at all.
CIGA
The majority of the changes to legislation apply UK wide and come from the most important piece of insolvency legislation that we've see in a generation - the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 ("CIGA").
对于《最高人民法院关于适用〈中华人民共和国民法典〉有关担保制度的解释》（下称“《民法典担保解释》”或“新规”）对金融资管业务的影响，我们在上篇及中篇中从担保物权受托持有、增信文件性质、上市公司对外担保、担保物权登记、抵押预告登记等角度进行了详细探析。本篇我们将从资产收益权回购交易、仲裁与申请实现担保物权程序、担保与破产衔接角度，着重介绍新规的修订及对金融资管业务的影响。择重点概括如下：
一、新规明确特定资产或资产收益权转让及回购交易中让与担保规则的处理方法
As always, there has been a lot going on in insolvency. We have highlighted below a few of the more important developments that we have seen in a very busy 2020 for insolvency lawyers.
Re Tokenhouse VB Ltd (Formerly VAT Bridge 7 Ltd) [2020] EWHC 3171 (Ch)
The challenges facing the businesses of the United Kingdom at the start of 2021 are perhaps greater than any of us have seen in our lifetimes. In addition to the economic consequences of the restrictions on daily life imposed to counter Covid-19, we are now seeing the effects of the exit of the UK from the EU with businesses having had little time to get up to speed on the new regime.
We all know 2020 made an impact – and as we look at the year ahead, there are a few repercussions of the incredible strain placed on businesses that are likely to come into the limelight as a result. While there are some global trends in litigation – like litigation funding and class actions - some Scotland specific trends are also worth highlighting. With that in mind, here are the five key things for litigators to watch in the year ahead:
1) Frustration and leases in Scots law
I have obviously been a good boy this year because my gift from the Insolvency Service has arrived - the November 2020 Insolvency statistics. And like any properly brought up child, I decided to sneak a peek at my present before Christmas Day.
What the numbers show us is a continuation of the trend that the previous figures disclosed - corporate insolvencies remain markedly lower than the equivalent period last year. In Scotland in particular this is driven by a massive reduction in the number of compulsory liquidations this year (Nov 2019 - 56; Nov 2020 - 13).
Earlier this year the UK Government introduced a number of temporary measures intended to avoid large scale insolvencies across the country. One of these measures was the suspension of wrongful trading liability.
This suspension was in place until September 30, 2020. Most of the other temporary measures were extended (e.g. the effective suspension of winding up petitions by creditors has been extended until December 31, 2020) but the suspension of wrongful trading liability was not extended.
Where a company becomes insolvent, there is a considerable risk that its employees end up being both out of a job and out of pocket. With the news that Arcadia Group has fallen into administration this week, we explore where employees stand when they are owed money from their insolvent employer and what steps they can take to maximise the chance of recovering sums.