The Privy Council's recent judgment in Weavering^[1]upheld the decisions of the Cayman Islands Grand Court and Court of Appeal that payments made to redeemed investors immediately prior to the fund's liquidation were preference payments under section 145(1) of the Companies Law (2018 Revision) (Law), and must be repaid.

The timing of the commencement of the voluntary liquidation of a Cayman Islands company was often driven primarily by the desire to avoid incurring the following year’s annual government fees. To avoid those fees, the liquidation had to commence by December, with the final meeting being held before the end of January. This timetable allowed for an effective dissolution date into the next calendar year, while still avoiding the government fees for that year.

When Cayman Islands funds undergo liquidity stress on their balance sheet due to holding illiquid assets or irregular large redemption requests, directors of Cayman Islands funds generally consider mechanics to provide for an orderly restructure to meet redemption requests which arise. Common arrangements are to implement a “redemption gate” which limits redemptions to a certain percentage of shares in the fund or a stronger response such as a suspension of all redemptions.

Last week, the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in Weavering Macro Fixed Income Fund Limited (in Liquidation) (the "Fund") v Stefan Peterson and Hans Ekstrom (the "Directors").  The appeal from the first instance decision was allowed and the Grand Court's order of 26 August 2011 was set aside.  

The Cayman Islands' Companies (Amendment) Act, 2021 (the Amendment Act) has now come into force. The Amendment Act introduces a new corporate restructuring process and the concept of a dedicated 'restructuring officer' into the Cayman Islands Companies Act (2022 Revision). Under the Amendment Act, the filing of a petition for the appointment of a restructuring officer triggers an automatic global moratorium on claims against the company, giving it the opportunity to seek to implement a restructuring.

Introduction

In the recent judgment of In the Matter of Margara Shipping Limited (the “Margara Decision”)1 the Cayman Islands Grand Court provided some useful guidance on the basis on which a company can be restored to the Register of Companies (the “Register”) and subsequently wound up pursuant to section 159 of the Companies Act (2021 Revision) (the “Companies Act”) and the Grand Court Rules (2022 Consolidation) (“GCR”), Order 102, Rule 18.

The Legal Basis to Restore and Wind Up A Company

The impact of Covid-19 is clearly the big talking point for 2022, with several questions arising: will new variants emerge, what steps will governments take to limit the spread, and what impact will it have on industries? To date, enforcement actions, insolvencies and restructurings have been relatively light, but with new restructuring legislation reforms on the horizon, and creditors starting to ramp up speed to enforcement, it appears likely that there will be an increase in winding up and cross-border restructuring work.

2020 was a crippling year for the aviation industry. With daily cash burn running into the tens of millions of dollars for many airlines, access to liquidity has been critical as treasury teams and fleet managers juggle expenses with decimated revenue. Many governments pledged state aid but what has been delivered to date has simply not been enough.

The ‘Golden Goose’

In order to prevent the expense of annual 2019 government registration fees, an appointed liquidator will be required to hold the final general meeting for a company or file the final dissolution notice for an exempted limited partnership on or before 31 January 2019.

Key Points

• A trust can be created and enforceable in respect of assets sited in a jurisdiction that does not recognise the concept of a trust
• In circumstances where the owner of a beneficial right goes into liquidation, the transfer of legal rights held by a third party to a bonafide purchaser for value is not a disposition within the meaning of s127.

The Facts