Alexandros Kontogeorgiou and Georgia Papathanasiou, Kontogeorgiou Bakopanou & Associates Law Firm
This is an extract from the 2022 edition of GRR's Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
ANNUAL CASE REVIEW 2021 serlecourt RAISING THE BAR IN CHANCERY & COMMERCIAL “Stacked with highly experienced silks and juniors, Serle Court has long been one of the leading sets when it comes to civil fraud disputes” Legal 500 serlecourt 02 Welcome to Serle Court’s Annual Review of 2021. In the second year of the pandemic, barristers at Serle Court have continued to appear, often remotely, in courts at all levels around the world, in cases across our wide field of commercial chancery law.
On 21 October 2021, the Cayman Islands' legislature gazetted the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2021 (Bill) which introduced a new corporate restructuring process in the Cayman Islands (Cayman). The Bill represents a welcome development to the restructuring regime in the Cayman Islands and once again fortifies the Cayman Islands' standing reputation as a leading offshore financial hub and a popular destination for foreign investment opportunities.
One year ago when the German out-of-court restructuring regime, StaRUG, came into force, people hoped for it to be the beginning of a new viable rescue culture in Germany.
Whilst generally not public, it appears there have been substantially more professional articles covering StaRUG than cases themselves (believed to be around 10-20 for the year).
Contents
Cayman Islands companies have dominated the restructuring news cycle of late for a variety of reasons, including recent judicial commentary as to the effect of obtaining recognition under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Company directors have a number of duties imposed on them under the Companies Act 2006 as well as under common and other laws. Failure to carry out directors’ duties can result in substantial penalties, including personal liability for any losses suffered by the company, its shareholders and its creditors.
Capital measures are common reorganisation measures when a capital company is in financial crisis, including eg injection of fresh capital by way of a capital increase. The implementation of capital measures during financial crisis is often a source of dispute amongst shareholders, in particular if the capital measures are driven by a financially strong majority shareholder.
In the case of Delco Participation BV v Green Elite Limited [2018] the Court of Appeal considered the test for appointing liquidators to a company following an alleged loss of substratum.
After the decision of the Privy Council in April 2014, the Fairfield Sentry saga continued recently with the new judgment of Justice Leon concerning the status of related US Bankruptcy Court proceedings.
Facts