For companies with an appetite for strategic business growth rather than divestment, buying assets from insolvent companies is a particular avenue of opportunity. For example, in the current market, there may be opportunities to purchase oil & gas assets from companies that have not been able to survive the prolonged low oil price. Corporate Partner, Philip Mace, provides his top 'legal tips' for purchasing assets from, in this example, an English administrator of a company.
Given the nature of their businesses, shipping companies may be involved as respondents in arbitration proceedings in different jurisdictions. As arbitrations tend to be lengthy procedures, a claimant to such proceedings may want to explore whether there are any quicker routes they can take to recover their losses. One such option they might consider is bringing a winding up petition against the company.
In the case of Anchorage Capital Master Offshore Ltd v Sparkes (No 3); Bank of Communications Co Ltd v Sparkes (No 2) [2021] NSWSC 1025 (Anchorage v Sparkes), the Supreme Court of NSW considered the obligations of company officers to sophisticated commercial lending entities, and whether company officers could be personally liable for making misleading statements.
Significance
The Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Bill was passed in the Parliament on 1 October 2018 and assented to by the President on 31 October 2018. Today, i.e. 30 July 2020, the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) will finally come into effect. In this article, which is the first of five in a series of articles covering various aspects of IRDA, we will provide an overview of its main features.
History of Singapore’s insolvency regime
The Ministry of Law in Singapore has announced that it will introduce a bill to the Parliament next week to offer temporary relief to businesses and individuals who are unable to fulfil their contractual obligations because of the COVID- 19 pandemic.
The proposed bill includes:
Judge decides whether an insurance company proposing a scheme of arrangement should convene a single class meeting of creditors
In Tiuta International Limited (in liquidation) v De Villiers Surveyors Limited [2017] UKSC 77 the Supreme Court reminded us that the measure of damages is that which is required to restore the claimant as nearly as possible to the position that he would have been in if he had not sustained the wrong.
A company in liquidation appealed against a decision that its claim against the directors, for breach of fiduciary or statutory duty in relation to distribution in specie of the claimant company’s shareholding in another company, was time-barred.
This is a follow-up to our previous client update on Swiber Holdings Limited written on 29 July 2016. To view our previous update, please click here.