After almost four years of existence, the Belgian “Act on Continuity of Enterprises” has achieved great success for companies in financial difficulties that wish to shelter from creditors’ lawsuits in order to attempt a restructuring of their business. The Act enables distressed companies to use effective and flexible recovery procedures to continue their business activities and to avoid insolvency.
John Wasty, John Riihiluoma, Lalita Vaswani and Sam Riihiluoma, Appleby
This is an extract from the 2020 edition of the Americas Restructuring Review, published by Global Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
On the 30th of December 2016, the application of the Law on Financial Operations (Law) will commence in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Law is intended to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market by introducing adequate and systematic risk management measures and solvency measures, as well as to promote the competitiveness of local commercial enterprises by legislating a culture of prompt payment.
To whom does it apply?
The Bermuda Commercial Court has provided guidance as to the considerations it will take into account when deciding the identity of the JPLs, further to our article on the Up Energy Group Ltd (the Company) restructuring and the circumstances in which Joint Provisional Liquidators (JPLs) will be appointed to monitor the proposed restructuring of a Be
Section 97 of Bermuda’s Companies Act 1981 imposes a statutory duty on every director to: (a) act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the company; and (b) exercise the care, diligence, and skill that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in comparable circumstances. The test is therefore an objective one using the reasonably prudent person as a comparator (see Focus Insurance Co Ltd v Hardy [1992] Bda LR 25 which appears to suggest that an element of subjectivity may also be considered in Bermuda.
At the III Commercial Law Conference held on June 7, 2019, the Council of the Federal Justice approved Precedent No. 104, according to which there will be no transfer of liabilities regarding financial penalties imposed under Law No. 12.846/2013 (Clean Company Act) on the acquirer of assets when the acquisition is based on article 60 of Law No. 11,101/2005 (Brazilian Restructuring and Bankruptcy Law).
Com a derrocada da situação econômica nos dois últimos anos, o país está vivenciando uma onda sem precedentes de recuperações judiciais, tendo ganhado destaque os pedidos feitos por grandes companhias, as quais figuram como tomadoras de apólices de seguro garantia apresentadas no âmbito de processos judiciais em que são partes.
The Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in South America and the world’s fifth largest country, both by land mass (almost 8.6 million square kilometers) and population (more than 200 million people). It is the only lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in otherwise Spanish-speaking Latin America and the largest lusophone country in the world. Brazil is a member of the G20, and one of the BRICS countries, along with Russia, India, China and South Africa. The country’s Constitution serves as the foundation of the Brazilian legal framework and sets forth fundamental rights.
Actions prior to a formal proceeding
What duties do directors or officers of a company owe creditors or other third parties if the company is insolvent or in financial difficulties, or has negative net worth? Is there a standard of care towards third parties? In what circumstances can officers and directors be found civilly or criminally liable for continuing to operate a company in financial difficulties? In practice, are such liabilities commonly enforced?Actions prior to a formal proceeding
In Brazil, directors and officers do not owe any duties directly to creditors of
In the recent BVI Court of Appeal decisions of Wembley and Sutton ‘disabled’ bearer shareholders were found to have a constitutional right not to be deprived of their property without compensation.