On 24 December 2020, the Federal Court of Australia published reasons for a decision in which I appeared for the liquidators of two related companies, Bestjet Travel Pty Ltd (in liq) and Wynyard Travel Pty Ltd (in liq). The decision can be accessed here.
In a recent judgment on directors’ liability (Bundesgerichtshof, 18 November 2020, IV ZR 217/19), the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) has clarified the scope of D&O insurance coverage, holding that company directors are entitled to its protection.
Background
RE IMAGINED
An analysis of the Restructuring Plan January 2021
Illustration: A world of complexity by Sam Hadley
RE IMAGINED: AN ANALYSIS OF THE RESTRUCTURING PLAN:
Hot off the press, yesterday we learnt a great deal more about the proposed suspension of the UK’s wrongful trading laws with the publication of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill 2019-21.
As directors consider how to meet their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic, the safe harbour provisions may provide some protection from insolvent trading liability.
Introduction
In our recent update on AGMs, we mentioned that the Government is due to pass legislation giving companies increased flexibility for holding Annual General Meetings, amongst other measures to help businesses through the COVID-19 situation.
Key Notes:
The sprawling and complex cross-border fraud litigation being pursued by the Joint Liquidators (Paul Atkinson and Glyn Mummery of FRP Advisory) of Grosvenor Property Developers Ltd (‘the Company’) has reached a significant milestone. The counsel team (instructed by Alyson Reilly and Séamas Gray of gunnercooke) led by Rory Brown (and including Martin Young, Nora Wannagat, and Andrew Shipley) has been involved in over 25 heavily contested hearings (in the High Court in London and in the CFI, DIFCC, Dubai) in the last 13 months.
As the business world starts to count the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government measures taken to contain it, attention is turning to the tools available to help companies that have been financially impacted.
Many companies are deferring payments to conserve liquidity, raising difficult questions around directors’ duties and leading to an immediate focus on how to protect the business from resulting creditor action.
On 18 May 2020, the same date that Romania switched to a state of alert that will expire on 17 June 2020, Law no. 55/2020 entered into force, which contains amendments to legal provisions for regular insolvency during the state of alert.
The most important amendments include a deferral of the obligation to file for insolvency, an increase in the threshold for petitioning for insolvency, extension of the duration for the reorganisation plan and an extension of other procedural deadlines.
The following is a list of the major amendments contained in the law: