Cram-across: Sino-Ocean Restructuring Plan Makes Waves
The evolution of the English RP continues to push the jurisdictional envelope.
The decision confirms that an arbitration agreement will be upheld in the face of insolvency proceedings only if it can be shown that the petition debt is genuinely disputed on substantial grounds.
Overview
The scope and extent of a director's duty is of particular interest to officeholders of companies and their D&O insurers.
Overview
On 9 February, the High Court handed down its judgement on Re Link Fund Solutions Ltd [2024] EWHC 250 (Ch) (the "Link Case").
Background
The collapse of Carillion in 2018 was arguably the UK's largest corporate insolvency in years, creating a lasting impact through job losses and the derailment of hundreds of public sector projects.
It is a cornerstone of English insolvency law and practice that creditors of a company in financial difficulty should share rateably (“pari passu”) in that company's assets. Put at its simplest, creditors with security should be paid before creditors with no security and unsecured creditors should share rateably between each other. Where an unconnected and unsecured creditor is paid before another creditor in the same category, that payment risks being set aside as a "preference", should the company subsequently enter liquidation or administration. But when does a preference occur?
Economic headwinds continue to make life difficult for retail and leisure operators. Wilko, of course, is the latest high profile retailer to enter administration, following on the heels of retailers such as Paperchase, Hotter Shoes and AMT Coffee. Cineworld's route out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy has involved the administration of its UK parent, although the operating companies have remained unaffected.
Claimant law firms are working hard to develop routes for holding parent companies and their boards responsible for trading activities carried out through subsidiary companies. The recent decision in Aston Risk Management v Jones and others provides clarity on when a registered director of a parent company can be found to be a de facto director of an operating subsidiary.