Essential points to consider if your company is looking at ways to improve balance sheet strength, whether strategically, opportunistically, or to help repair the damage done by the pandemic.
60 SECOND BASICS
WHAT IS IT
According to the Guinness Book of Records, one Mr Johnson George of India holds the world record for the most roles played by any actor in one film. He played 45 roles, including Gandhi, Leonardo Da Vinci and Jesus. Company directors don’t have quite as many roles, nor are they as lofty.
What happens to a company’s intellectual property rights when the company is dissolved?
Sometimes not all loose ends are tied up neatly and companies are dissolved whilst still owning assets. What happens to those assets if they are not bought prior to dissolution can appear mysterious, but even following the dissolution of the company the assets may continue to exist. In this article we discuss the processes that can be used in England and Wales to obtain intellectual property assets from dissolved companies.
Falling into “bona vacantia”
Avec la promulgation de la loi n° 14.112/2020 entrée en vigueur le 23 janvier 2021, le Brésil adopte la loi type de la Commissions des Nations Unies pour le Droit Commercial International (« CNUDCI ») sur l’insolvabilité internationale de 1997 (la « Loi Type »), devenant ainsi le 49ème Etat à le faire.
Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (Aeroméxico), is a publicly held company incorporated under the Mexican laws. It has its establishment in Mexico and yet filed for bankruptcy in a US court. Probably Aeromexico wanted to get access to a more flexible and expedited bankruptcy, but at the end of the day, its bankruptcy story will be finished in Mexico.
As published in the Business Post, March 14th.
Corporate partners Eoin Brereton and Bernard McEvoy discuss their experience in advising clients though crises including the ongoing pandemic in yesterday’s Business Post report on corporate restructuring and rebuilding corporate performance.
A year ago, many predicted that the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines and their impact on the economy would result in a deluge of bankruptcy filings that could rival the Great Recession of 2008-2009. However, as we approach the one-year anniversary of former President Trump declaring the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus a national emergency, that prediction has not come to pass.
This week’s TGIF considers the decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales In the matter of Gearhouse BSI Pty Ltd [2021] NSWSC 98. In this case, one of the joint venture parties obtained an order to wind up the joint venture on the basis that the underlying purpose of the business had failed.
Key takeaways
On 15th September 2020, the Companies Act (Suspension of Filing for Dissolution and Winding Up) Regulations (the ‘Regulations’) were introduced as part of several other measures intended to protect local businesses from the adverse economic impact brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. They became applicable retrospectively as from 16th March 2020.
IMPACT ON CREDITORS AND SHAREHOLDERS
Directors of companies have been facing, and continue to face, extremely challenging circumstances due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The decisions they have taken through the pandemic to date have been made against a backdrop of unknowns: unknown closure durations, unknown projections and uncertain futures.