The Singapore Court of Appeal has clarified the standard of review that applies to winding-up applications where the underlying relationship between the debtor and creditor is subject to an arbitration agreement.
Background
Under Section 254(2)(a) of the Singapore Companies Act, a company can be wound-up by the court upon the application of a creditor who has served a statutory demand on the company for a debt of SGD 10,000 or more and the debt continues to remain unpaid for three weeks thereafter.
Amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) to implement the measures announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Sunday, 22 March 2020 to provide temporary relief for financially distressed businesses due to COVID-19 have now come into effect.
The Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Act 2020 (Cth) (CERPO Act) amendments were passed by the Parliament on 2 March 2020. They will apply for a 6 month period, but may be extended or have impacts beyond that timeframe.
1. Nature of process
Chapter 11 used to effect operational restructuring, deleverage balance sheet, and/or commence asset sale of the business as a going concern
Insolvency Act process primarily used to effect a pre-packaged sale of the business or assets effected by administrators (i.e. external qualified appointees).
The Prime Minister of Vietnam recently issued Decision No. 242, approving Vietnam's Restructuring Plan of the insurance business market until 2020, oriented towards 2025 (Plan) following the final proposal of the Ministry of Finance (MOF)'s Insurance Supervisory Authority of Vietnam.1
Recent Development
The Turkish Parliament enacted a law amending the composition (tr. "konkordato," a Turkish scheme of arrangement) articles in the Code of Enforcement and Bankruptcy in response to widespread abuse of the composition proceedings. The changes are effective as of the date of promulgation on the Official Gazette, 19 December 2018, with pending applications remaining subject to the previous version of the provisions.
The Amendments
The major amendments are summarized below.
In brief
In Chan WS and Chan CNP v. CC Bank [2022] HKCA 1037 ("CA Decision"), the Court of Appeal (CA) recently overturned a decision in the Court of First Instance (CFI) to set aside two statutory demands (SDs) on the ground of overstatement of the debt in the SDs ("CFI Decision").
Yeni Gelişme
5. Yargı Paketi olarak da anılan İcra ve İflas Kanunu ile Bazı Kanunlarda Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun Teklifi (“Teklif”), TBMM Adalet Komisyonu tarafından kabul edildi. Kabul edilen Teklifin kanunlaştırılması doğrultusunda Salı günü TBMM Genel Kurulu’nda görüşmeler başladı. Söz konusu Teklif ile icra ve iflas süreçlerinde iş yoğunluğunun azaltılması ve verimliliğin artırılması amacıyla İcra ve İflas Kanunu’nda önemli değişiklikler öngörülüyor.
In brief
On 14 May 2021, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Hong Kong government agreed a framework (“Framework”) for judicial cooperation in corporate insolvency and debt restructuring. Under the Framework:
In brief
Creditors commonly find that their applications to wind up a company are suddenly deferred at the last minute by the appointment of a voluntary administrator. Now, in the early days of the small business restructuring (Part 5.3B) process, the courts are already grappling with those circumstances in the context of that new regime. At the time of writing1, only four restructuring appointments under Part 5.3B have been notified to ASIC. Two of them have been the subject of court proceedings.
The resulting decisions reveal:
The current Dutch Bankruptcy Code dates back to 1893 when it was first enacted, has aged nicely and still functions well despite the now existing international financial markets and complex financial instruments that could not have been imagined 127 years ago. Although many changes were made since its inception, the Dutch Bankruptcy Code has never had a major overhaul, even though many initiatives were launched over the years.