Case Background 

14th June, 2022 -The Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) handed down a judgment inShandong Chenming Paper Holdings Limited v Arjowiggins HKK 2 Limited [2022] HKCFA 11 (“CFA Decision”) yesterday, ruling on the nature of benefits conferred by a winding up order required to wind up a foreign incorporated company. 

Can a winding-up petition be presented when a company is being wounded up voluntarily?

The impact upon the economy as a result of COVID-19 sees no signs of abatement in the near-term and not a single sector of industry has been spared. Economic data shows that GDP declines in real terms, along with private expenditure.

Perhaps some of the rounds of stimulus distributed by the HKSAR Government will help cushion the local economy, but in any event any recovery will be patchy at best with some sectors facing a much longer period of uncertainty than others.

Judicial comments cast doubt on the ability to compromise US law-governed debt effectively based on Chapter 15 recognition alone.

On 18 March 2021, the UK Government published its white paper on restoring trust in audit and corporate governance. On 31 May 2022, the Government published its response to the consultation.

Re Intellicomms Pty Ltd (in liq) [2022] VSC 228

The proceeding was brought by the liquidators of Intellicomms Pty Ltd (the Company) seeking relief in relation to a Sale Agreement dated 2021 between the Company and the defendant, Tecnologie Fluenti Pty Ltd (the Purchaser), involving the sale of certain business assets of the Company to the Purchaser.

Legal proceedings were initiated in front of the Luxembourg district court by a public limited liability company (société anonyme), seeking the deletion of bankruptcy filings made with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register (hereinafter "RCSL"). The company had been declared bankrupt by judgment of the Luxembourg district court and such court decision had been filed and published with the RCSL.

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has provided further helpful guidance to insolvency practitioners as to the circumstances in which leave will be granted to commence or continue proceedings against a company in liquidation. Adenium Energy Capital Limited (in official liquidation) (Adenium) is the latest in a line of cases in the Cayman Islands in which leave has been sought to commence proceedings under s 97(1) of the Companies Act against a Cayman Islands-incorporated company in liquidation.

Family law processes cannot be used to defraud creditors. In Re ZH International Pty Ltd (in liq), the Supreme Court of New South Wales held that transfers of property from a company to the directors and shareholders of that company as part of family law proceedings were voidable transactions under section 588FF of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) where the company was not a party to the orders and the orders did not require the company to make the transfers.

Background

The Corporations Act is slowly catching up to modern technology.