Insolvency Practitioners should be alert to the potential impact of new and proposed corporate transparency measures.
Companies House reform and the new Register of Overseas Owners of UK Property will be largely welcomed, providing more in depth access to more reliable information which will support IPs when carrying out their duties. However, some of the insolvency specific details are yet to be confirmed and IPs will want to watch this space. We have set out a high level summary of the forthcoming changes below.
The Luxembourg act of 28 October 2022 introducing the procedure of administrative dissolution without liquidation (procédure de dissolution administrative sans liquidation, the "Administrative Dissolution Procedure") (the "Act") has just been published and will enter into force on 1st February 2023.
Background and objective
The purpose of the Act is to dissolve empty shell companies within a short timeframe at reduced costs for the Luxembourg State.
The perceived costs of proposing a restructuring plan are seen to be the biggest inhibitors to using the process for SMEs. It is still a relatively new tool and insolvency practitioners, lawyers and the courts are still grappling with it, but as we have seen recently in Amigo Loans it can provide creative and innovative restructuring solutions[1].
What this means for the shareholders of a business facing insolvency
In het tweede kwartaal van 2022 zijn op www.rechtspraak.nl 52 uitspraken gepubliceerd waarin de ingestelde vordering gegrond was op bestuurdersaansprakelijkheid. Het betrof 3 uitspraken van de Hoge Raad, 6 conclusies van de advocaat-generaal bij de Hoge Raad, 15 uitspraken van de gerechtshoven en 28 van rechtbanken.
In deze Kwartaalupdate Bestuurdersaansprakelijkheid voor Q2 2022 is een selectie
gemaakt uit deze uitspraken. De navolgende onderwerpen komen aan bod:
01. Bestuurdersaansprakelijkheid en matiging
(Hoge Raad 13 mei 2022) 2
Good afternoon.
Please find our summaries of the civil decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of July 4, 2022.
Seahawk China Dynamic Fund: winding up on just and equitable grounds
In a recent decision, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands grappled with the question of whether the need for an investigation into the affairs of the company is a stand-alone ground for winding up. While the Court did not determine the question conclusively, it did provide an indication of how it may rule if the issue were to be placed squarely before the Court again.
In the Matter of Seahawk China Dynamic Fund
In Rushbrooke UK Ltd (the Company) v Designs Concept Ltd (Designs) [2022] EWHC 1110 (Ch), the Court struck out injunction proceedings to restrain the presentation of a winding up petition as the instructing director did not have Company authority.
Background
Later in the year amendments to Part V of the Cayman Islands Companies Act (the "Companies Act") will be introduced to commence a new restructuring officer regime available to companies in financial difficulty. Under the new regime, it will be possible to petition the Cayman Court to appoint "restructuring officers" and, from the time of filing, for the company to take the benefit of an automatic moratorium (i.e. akin to a US Chapter 11 stay or English administration moratorium).
The Decree of the Ministry of Justice No. 75 of 3 March 2022, on the Regulation containing provisions on the functioning of the Register of business crisis managers referred to in Article 356 of Legislative Decree No.