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Successful outcomes for clients seeking to obtain winding up orders against foreign companies with local agents. The case summaries below, of Re Anagram International LLC (recs and mgrs apptd) [2025] VSC 267 and the earlier matter of W Capital Advisors Pty Ltd (in its capacity as trustee for the W Capital Advisors Fund) v Mawson Infrastructure Group, Inc (NSD1395/2024), provide guidance on how parties can best position themselves for success in these circumstances.

Relevant Law

The decision of the Federal Court inTrue North Copper Limited (Administrators Appointed) [2024] FCA 1329 demonstrates the exercise of the Court’s discretion in giving effect to the objects of Pt 5.3A of theCorporations Act 2001 (Cth), whilst offering protection to administrators against liabilities which may arise when making commercial decisions in the course of discharging their duties effectively.

Introduction

The landmark decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Stevanovich v Richardson1provides authoritative guidance on the proper interpretation of “person aggrieved” under section 273 of the BVI Insolvency Act, which deals with standing to challenge a liquidator’s decision.

The much-anticipated UK Supreme Court decision in El-Husseiny and another v Invest Bank PSC [2025] UKSC 4 was released recently, providing much-needed clarity to creditors and officeholders about the application of section 423 Insolvency Act 1986 to transactions involving debtors and company structures. Creditors and officeholders alike will be pleased with this decision, as the Court determined that the language and purpose of section 423 are such that a ‘transaction’ is not confined to dealing with an asset owned by the debtor.

Teacher Retirement System of Texas plans to reduce its private equity target allocation to 12% from a current exposure of 16.7% starting in October. The planned reduction, which may be implemented over a number of years. For now, the change in target allocation likely means reduced new commitments, while some of the rebalancing could be accomplished by fund AUM growth.

At the bottom of the stack in investment fund structures, there are generally “real” assets—things like equity interests in portfolio companies, mortgage loans, commercial receivables, maybe even bricks and mortar. Fund finance transactions, though, are by design crafted to be at several levels removed from such underlying assets. With such ultimate assets remote from the transaction, it may seem to fund finance practitioners that concerns about changes in the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) relating to the nature of collateral assets are just as remote.

One of the most important aspects in arranging any fund finance transaction is structuring the security package. As anyone that has ever looked at a complete structure chart for a fund financing transaction knows, even a “simple” private fund structure typically involves a number of different entity types (limited partnerships, limited liability companies, etc.) organized in several jurisdictions (Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, etc.).

Parties structuring certain financial transactions to comply with the Bankruptcy Code safe harbor provisions, including protections from the avoidance powers in Section 548 of the Bankruptcy Code,1 must be cognizant of recent case law prescribing the identity of counterparties within the ambit of the provisions.