The COVID-19 regulation on insolvency law set out the conditions under which COVID-19-related over-indebtedness of the company does not to lead to a declaration of bankruptcy by the board of directors (see our blog post "COVID-19 Deferral of Bankruptcy Filing in Switzerland").

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has provided guidance on its approach to directors of companies, made insolvent by the COVID-19 pandemic, who act in good faith on objective evidence in trying to rebuild their businesses.

The issue

The consequences of the COVID-19 crisis have made many businesses that were solvent, and will likely become solvent again, technically insolvent.

In his judgment handed down on 7 May 2020 in the case of Gregory v ARG (Mansfield) Ltd [2020] EWHC 1133 (Ch), HH Judge Davis-White QC, sitting as a Judge of the High Court, commented (on an obiter basis) that where a company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) seeks to enter administration, section 362A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA 2000”) and paragraph 29 of Schedule B1 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “Insolvency Act”), require that writ

Legislative Decree No. 1511, which was recently enacted in Peru, provides for a special bankruptcy procedure called the Expedited Procedure for Bankruptcy Refinancing (“PARC” for its initials in Spanish), which is intended to help businesses affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic negotiate with their creditors and agree on an orderly restructuring of debt payments to avoid insolvency.

Several aspects of PARC merit special attention, including the following:

It is imperative that companies in financial distress prioritise their continued existence and consider business rescue as an alternative to liquidation. Business rescue is a robust procedure that allows South African companies in financial distress or trading in insolvent circumstances to file for business rescue and with the assistance of a business rescue practitioner, reorganise and restructure the business with the aim of returning it to a more stable and profitable entity.

The sometimes controversial Examinership process, established in 1990, remains a very important tool for Irish companies with viable businesses that find themselves in financial difficulties.

It was established with the intention of preserving employment and benefiting the economy by facilitating corporate recovery. Examinership enables companies that successfully come through the process to do so with new investment and, hopefully, a brighter future that might not have otherwise been possible if the company had been forced into receivership or liquidation.

Introduction

Goulston & Storrs bankruptcy attorney Doug Rosner recently collaborated with Thomson Reuters to create a three-part video series regarding alternative solutions to the financial problems of distressed companies. This summary highlights the advantages and disadvantages of out-of-court restructuring as an alternative to Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization (part one of the series).

On 20 May 2020, the U.K. government published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the bill), which includes measures designed to help businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and features important substantive reforms to U.K. restructuring law, whose introduction has been accelerated by the crisis.

COVID-19-Related Measures:

The key temporary measures introduced by the bill are:

Statutory Demands and Winding up Petitions

On 9 November 2020, the PRC Supreme People's Court ("SPC") promulgated the Interpretations Applicable to Security-related Parts of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft") for public comments by 27 November 2020. This is the first interpretations issued by the SPC to the public for comments after the PRC Civil Code was officially promulgated.