R3, trade body for insolvency and restructuring accountants, said the first quarter of 2021 had seen a sharp fall in companies and individuals becoming bankrupt.
Corporate insolvencies in January to March fell by 31 per cent on the preceding quarter.
The figure was 63 per cent lower than the first quarter of 2020.
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.
Selección de las principales resoluciones en materia de reestructuraciones e insolvencias.
Suspensión de la junta general extraordinaria hasta la designación y aceptación del cargo por la administración concursal
Auto del Juzgado de lo Mercantil núm. 3 de Sevilla de 26 de febrero de 2021 (asunto “Abengoa”)
Selection of the main restructuring and insolvency judgments.
Suspension of special shareholders’ meeting until insolvency receiver’s appointment and acceptance of that appointment
Decision by Seville Commercial Court No 3 on February 26, 2021 (“Abengoa” case)
On January 22, 2021 Madrid's commercial court judges approved a set of agreed procedures for handling insolvency proceedings in which liquidation is requested together with the insolvency order, as well as a number of criteria for transfers of productive units in these and other insolvency processes.
El 22 de enero de 2021, los jueces mercantiles de Madrid aprobaron un conjunto de acuerdos para la tramitación de procedimientos de insolvencia en los que se solicita la liquidación junto a la declaración de concurso, así como una serie de criterios para la enajenación de unidades productivas en estos y otros procesos concursales.
El impacto sostenido en la actividad económica que está teniendo la pandemia COVID-19 ha llevado al Gobierno, por un lado, a adoptar una serie de medidas destinadas a reforzar la liquidez y solvencia de las empresas y, por otro, a extender una vez más algunas de las medidas en el ámbito de la Administración de Justicia que se habían adoptado en el marco del Real Decreto-ley 16/2020, de 28 de abril, posteriormente confirmadas en la Ley 3/2020, de 18 de septiembre, así como en el Real Decreto-Ley 34/2020, de 17 de noviembre.
La Sala Primera del Tribunal Supremo ha dictado una nueva sentencia, la 46/2021, de 2 de febrero, en la que se confirma lo ya señalado en la Sentencia 4/2021, de 15 de enero de 2021. Dos sentencias miméticas en todo (casi hasta en las partes).
La doctrina ahora asentada por la 46/2021 se resume:
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").
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)