Winding up a Jersey trust company on just and equitable grounds

We have recently prepared a study on court practice in Latvia in board liability cases. A short summary of our main findings appears below.

In practice there a numerous uncertainties in relation to civil liability of management bodies of companies, scope of such liability, and related matters. On 4 April 2017, considering the current situation, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania (the Supreme Court or SC) published the first overview of case law in relation to application of the norms of civil law regulating civil liability of management bodies of companies in the case law of the Supreme Court.

Generally speaking, wrongful trading is the special form of liability where a director of a company is liable for damages towards the creditors for the mismanagement of an insolvent company.

A special feature of the institution of wrongful trading is, that it may give rise not only to the liability of the director of the company but also to the liability of the director, management, employee of the parent company or even of the grandparent company (so called shadow director).

There are various winding up procedures to which a Maltese-registered company may be subjected in terms of Maltese law. Amongst the said modes of action is what is known as the members’ voluntary winding up. This refers to the solvent voluntary liquidation of a company and specifically necessitates that the company in questionwill be able to pay off its debts in full within a period not exceeding12 months from the proposed date of dissolution.

General

Earlier this year, both the lower and upper houses of Malaysia’s parliament, passed the Companies Bill 2015 (“theBill”) which will harmonise Malaysia's insolvency laws and bring them more in line with modern international standards. Once the Bill comes into effect (it is currently awaiting Royal Assent), it will replace Malaysia’s existing Companies Act 1965.

Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by governments have led to unprecedented legal questions that require immediate attention and solutions. These are challenging times. We have therefore prepared the following overview of some of the pertinent legal questions and the answers to consider, in the hope they provide useful preliminary guidance.

EMPLOYMENT (news)

Diversity in boards of larger companies

Targets (i.e., at least 30% women) imposed by Dutch law for a more balanced composition of the executive and supervisory boards of ‘large’ companies shall cease to exist as of 2020. A ‘large’ company is a company that meets two of the following requirements: (i) EUR 20 mio balance sheet total; (ii) net turnover of EUR 40 mio; and (iii) 250 employees. This does not, however, mean that diversity is no longer on the agenda of the Dutch Government.

On 1 July 2016 four important new laws applicable to businesses and directors will enter into effect.

In the corporate inquiry (enquête) procedure of Inter Access the Supreme Court recently confirmed a decision by the Enterprise Chamber where immediate measures were ordered which led to the dilution of a majority shareholder's stake. The managing board of the company was allowed to issue shares without a resolution of the AGM.