Introduction

In the recent case of Re Hsin Chong Construction Co., Ltd. [2021] HKCFA 14, the Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) overturned the decisions of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal (“CA”) below. The CFA found, contrary to the CA and Court of First Instance, that the disposition of Hsin Chong’s residual rights and interests under a joint venture agreement after the commencement of winding up was void.

Background

简介

最近在Re Hsin Chong Construction Co., Ltd. [2021] HKCFA 14一案中，终审法院推翻了原讼法庭及上诉法庭（「上诉庭」）的裁决。与上诉庭及原讼法庭的裁决相反，终审法院裁定，于新昌开始清盘后出售其在合营协议项下剩余权利及权益的交易是无效的。

背景

新昌营造厂有限公司（「该公司」）及Build King Construction Limited（「Build King」）于2013年11月订立一份合营协议（「合营协议」），以成立及经营一间合营公司（「合营公司」）。合营公司于2016年6月获得一项大型政府项目合约，其中该公司占65% 权益，Build King占余下35% 权益。

该公司于2017/2018年度开始面临财政困难。2018年8月27日，该公司被入禀清盘，导致该公司的银行帐户被冻结。

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.

Monday, November 8, 2021

Antitrust

Verkopers en leveranciers van roerende goederen kunnen problemen met slecht betalende klanten voorkomen via een beding van eigendomsvoorbehoud.

Met dit beding kan men namelijk contractueel bepalen dat het eigendomsrecht op een bepaald goed pas overgaat nadat de derde-verkrijger er de prijs volledig van heeft betaald.

As has been widely reported, the recent energy price volatility (coupled with the price cap limiting suppliers’ ability to pass increased costs on to consumers) has caused a number of energy supply company failures. Yesterday saw the announcement of the collapse of Bulb, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, with it being due to be placed into special administration very shortly.

This is the first energy special administration we’ve seen. So how are the insolvency rules different for energy companies? What is a special administration, and why is this the first one?

The Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill 2021 (the Bill) is expected to come into force from 25 March 2022 – it is intended to introduce an arbitration procedure for commercial rent arrears accrued by businesses during the “protected period” and also to extend the restrictions on the use of winding up proceedings and now to include personal bankruptcy.

The “protected period” relates to business tenancies adversely affected by the pandemic either by enforced closure or restrictions placed on trade. This period – as set out in section 5 of the Bill – runs from:

The insolvency moratorium the government put in place in 2020 kept insolvency numbers low. Once this was lifted on 1 January 2021, we all expected a wave of insolvencies, however, the various business support packages and lack of pressure from banks and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) gave businesses breathing room.

On 12 May 2021, The Rating (Coronavirus) and Director Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill was introduced to Parliament.

The Bill passed through the Commons stages unaltered and recently passed the Committee stage at the House of Lords on 10 November 2021. The Report stage will be taking place on 1 December 2021.

Purpose of the Bill

This week’s TGIF considers In the matter of Habibi Waverton (in liquidation) (administrator appointed) [2021] NSWSC 1443, a recent decision of the Supreme Court of NSW in which the Court opted to use its general powers to allow a voluntary administrator to transfer shares without the owner’s consent to implement a DOCA.

Key Takeaways

In the first three months of 2021, almost 40,000 companies were struck off the Companies House register – an increase of 743% on the same period in 2020. Speculation that these figures related to avoidance of coronavirus-related loan repayments led the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to take the highly unusual step, in March 2021, of making a blanket objection to any application for dissolution by a company with an unpaid bounce-back loan.