Restructuring and insolvency professionals are showing real ingenuity when restructuring insolvent businesses, and landlords need to keep up.

Economic downturns create opportunities for the restructuring or acquisition of challenged assets, and we anticipate increased activity in this space in 2023. The indicators pointing in that direction are:

Can a corporate debtor be denied a Subchapter V discharge under § 523(a), despite this § 523(a) language (emphasis added):

• “A discharge under section . . . 1192 [Subchapter V] . . . does not discharge an individual debtor from . . . ”?

A recent Bankruptcy Court opinion (in Avion Funding) says, essentially, this: “No! You can’t paint over explicit statutory language.”[Fn. 1]

Such recent opinion:

To promote the finality of bankruptcy asset sales, section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code "moots" an appeal of an order approving a sale to a good-faith purchaser unless the party challenging the sale obtains a stay pending appeal. Courts, however, sometimes disagree over the scope of section 363(m) and whether it also bars appeals of orders approving transactions that are related to a sale, such as settlements.

Further to our blog last week regarding the restrictions on presentation of winding-up petitions being (partially) lifted, the legislation replacing the existing restrictions on presenting winding-up petitions has now been passed and is due to come into force on 29 September 2021.

squirepattonboggs.com 014-5095-0428/15/EUROPE Impact of COVID-19 on Insolvency Laws: How Countries Are Revamping Their Insolvency and Restructuring Laws to Combat COVID-19 26 April 2021 squirepattonboggs.com squirepattonboggs.com Contents Around the globe, our lawyers are receiving a large number of enquiries about mitigating the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on companies' business operations and finances. Governments in several countries have reacted quickly to try to mitigate COVID-19's impact by changing or amending their insolvency laws.

The UK Government has announced that the temporary prohibition on forfeiture will be extended when the current prohibition comes to an end at the end of the year. The restriction, that prevents commercial landlords from forfeiting a lease for non-payment, will now be in place until 31 March 2021.

The Australian government has taken swift action to enact new legislation that significantly changes the insolvency laws relevant to all business as a result of the ongoing developments related to COVID-19.

The Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Act 2020 (Response Act) became effective on March 25, 2020, and is an effort to provide temporary relief to companies experiencing financial distress as a result of the ongoing and rapidly changing economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Response Act

Further to our blog about measures announced by the Government to protect commercial tenants from “aggressive” rent collection strategies, the Government subsequently confirmed that the restrictions will apply (unless extended) from:

At the end of March, the Government introduced measures providing a moratorium on evictions for commercial tenants for non-payment of rent until 30 June 2020.

The amendments of the Response Act are temporary and will apply for six months until September 23, 2020. However, subject to economic and health developments, the provisions may be expanded in both their application and scope