It’s hard to write a pithy article about the transfer of proceedings from the High Court in London to the Central London County Court (CLCC), but given its wide-reaching implications I thought it was worth a try.
The High Court has approved a £3bn rescue package for Thames Water to plug the leak in the water company's finances while it seeks to secure a wider restructuring deal. This is stage one in Thames Water's plan to restructure its £19bn debt mountain and secure £5bn in equity investment, with the initial cash injection urgently required to service £200m of debt which falls due on 24 March.
In a recent ruling (NMC Health PLC (in Administration) v Ernst & Young LLP [2024] EWHC 2905 (Comm)), the High Court declined to order disclosure of witness statements and transcripts of interviews conducted by administrators during their initial investigations, citing litigation privilege.
Litigation privilege
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics, according to Mark Twain, are pliable. While the author of Tom Sawyer likely wasn’t thinking about the annual UK insolvency statistics, they certainly illustrate his point. The Telegraph uses the 2024 statistics, released Tuesday, to criticise Rachel Reeves, suggesting that an increase in compulsory liquidations in 2024 is a direct result of the October budget. Given that the financial impact of the budget will not be felt directly by businesses until April 2025, this is very much a case of putting the cart before the horse.
On December 31, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long awaited opinion in the disputes arising from the controversial “uptier” transaction executed by Serta Simmons Bedding, L.L.C. (“Serta”) in 2020 and the confirmation of Serta’s chapter 11 plan by the Southern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court in 2023. The Fifth Circuit reversed former Bankruptcy Judge David Jones’ summary judgment ruling that the 2020 uptier transaction was permissible under Serta’s existing credit agreements.
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has published guidance (the Guidance) following the publication of the Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.2) Regulations 2024 (the Regulations) on 14 November 2024. OFSI is the body with regulatory oversight of the financial sanctions regime and is responsible for its implementation and enforcement within the UK.
The Times reported yesterday on the continued promotion of an “insolvency avoidance” scheme, despite efforts by the Insolvency Service to close it down. The scheme claims to offer directors of distressed companies a means of avoiding formal liquidation – with the associated scrutiny of their actions and risk of personal liability.
The Delaware Chancery Court placed Arrowood Indemnity Company in liquidation on November 8, 2023, by a liquidation order. The court found Arrowood to be insolvent by the court, and appointed a receiver to liquidate Arrowood’s assets, evaluate any claims made against Arrowood and evaluate the payment of claims made against it.
Background
When you read the papers do you start from the front or back? I usually skim read the front-page headlines and immediately flick to the back (sport) pages. It’s less dispiriting that way. Or if it’s the weekend, I fumble my way through the different sections, past the gazillions of adverts showcasing tyre inflators and hair loss treatments, before I land at the sports section. They don’t make it easy for you do those weekend editors.
In an opinion issued on August 16, 2024 (In re Robertshaw US Holding Corp., Bankr. S.D. Tex., Case No. 24-90052, Docket No.