Legal Developments

Potential hourly wage system

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MOL) is discussing a potential new employment system for Saudi employees named “Flexible Work” (Flexible Work). Flexible Work will be a system whereby an employee may be paid an hourly wage on a weekly basis in arrears, and various entitlements currently required under the Labor Law for conventional employees would not be required, such as:

On 7 December 2018, Serbian Parliament passed yet another Act on Amendments of Bankruptcy Law that will be applicable as of 1 January 2019.

These changes make the third change of the Bankruptcy Law in less then a year.

The new Law on Consensual Financial Restructuring (“Official Gazette of RS“ No. 89/2015) which came into effect on November 4, 2015, began to be applied on February 3, 2016. As opposed to the previous Law on Consensual Financial Restructuring from 2011, which did not deliver the expected results with regard to decreasing number of irrecoverable debts, the new Law establishes a better legal framework for voluntary debt restructuring in Serbia.

The Act is a groundbreaking development in Singapore's corporate rescue laws and includes major changes to the rules governing schemes of arrangement, judicial management, and cross-border insolvency. The Act also incorporates several features of chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, including super-priority rescue financing, cram-down powers, and prepackaged restructuring plans. The legislation may portend Singapore's emergence as a center for international debt restructuring.

On March 10, 2017, Singapore's Parliament approved the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2017 ("Act") to enhance the country's corporate debt restructuring framework. The Act was assented to by President Tony Tan Keng Yam on March 29, 2017, and became effective after it was published in the Singapore Government Gazette on March 30, 2017.

On February 1, 2017, the Supreme Court of Singapore and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware announced that they had formally implemented Guidelines for Communication and Cooperation between Courts in Cross-Border Insolvency Matters (the "Guidelines"). The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York adopted the Guidelines on February 17, 2017.

Key Points

• Under rule 98(2)(c) of the Singapore Bankruptcy Rules, the court shall set aside a statutory demand if the creditor holds ‘security for the debt’ claimed in the demand, and the court is satisfied that the value of such security is equivalent to or exceeds the full amount of the debt.

• This case suggests that the creditor making a statutory demand is not obliged to disclose security offered by a third party, but only by the debtor in respect of the debt.

The Facts

Introduction

A statutory demand is an important step in the bankruptcy process, as it allows the creditor to initiate a bankruptcy application against the debtor. It is thus vital that any statutory demand issued must conform to the legislative requirements. In the recent case of Ramesh Mohandas Nagrani v United Overseas Bank Ltd [2015] SGHC 266, the Singapore High Court had to decide whether to set aside a statutory demand based on alleged irregularities in its contents, and touched on what makes a statutory demand invalid.

Manharlal Trikamdas Mody E Anor v Sumikin Bussan International (HK) Limited [2014] SGHC 123

The Singapore High Court in the case of Manharlal Trikamdas Mody E Anor v Sumikin Bussan International (HK) Limited [2014] SGHC 123 decided a number of important issues in the fields of bankruptcy, assignment and ex parte applications.

On 11 May 2015, the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 2015 (the “Bill”) was tabled in Parliament for first reading. Essentially, the Bill seeks to amend the Bankruptcy Act to create a more rehabilitative regime for bankrupts, ensure better utilisation of public resources and encourage creditors to exercise financial prudence when extending credit.