In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, a number of insolvency laws have been updated. Our guidance outlines what this means to businesses in 17 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

In response to the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), governments in many countries have issued emergency legislation to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on companies’ day-to-day operations. Since March 24, 2020, the Indian government has been announcing various measures aimed to ease corporate and tax compliance for companies doing business in India, as well as other measures pertaining to employment and bankruptcy matters. Below is a high-level overview of some of the most relevant aspects of these measures as they pertain to India subsidiaries of US companies.

The enactment of Law 1676 of 2013 (Secured Interest Law) in the context of insolvency proceedings − reorganization and liquidation − has substantially restated the legal scope of creditors’ rights in at least three aspects: (i) the existence or not of a new creditor type; (ii) the compatibility of that possible new type of creditor and the current system of creditors hierarchy, and (iii) the specific rights of that new creditor, should there be one, in creditors arrangement proceedings.

(i) Is the secured creditor a new type of creditor?

There are limits on the ability of shareholders to ratify dubious acts of the directors – it cannot be effective if the interests of existing creditors have become paramount (so as to subordinate the duties owed to shareholders) and are prejudiced. This is particularly relevant to upstream guarantees. On 6th February, the Court of Appeal gave its 51-page judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana S.A which is relevant to exactly this point.

Twenty years after Noble Energy, Inc. acquired assets from the bankruptcy estate of Alma Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Co. asserted a US$63 million claim against Noble regarding the acquisition.

There have been a number of smoke signals in the last few months around the increase of consumer debt in the UK and a focus on those firms providing consumer credit across the credit spectrum but particularly in the "sub-prime" or "near-prime" space.

Since the credit crunch, a number of consumer credit businesses have stepped in to fill a gap in the lending market. They give sub-prime or near-prime borrowers, who may find it difficult to obtain credit from traditional sources, with high-cost, short-term credit - instant access to funds.

In 2016 the High Court considered the validity of an assignment of a lease by a tenant to its guarantor. The antiavoidance provisions in section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 ("1995 Act") strictly limit the freedom of contract of parties to leases governed by that Act, broadly, those granted after 1995. Agreements which frustrate those provisions are void even if they are commercially justifiable.

BRIEF FACTS AND DECISION

EMI Group Limited v O&H Q1 Limited [2016] EWHC 529 (Ch)

Az ENEFI és a román adóhatóság közötti jogvitában az eljáró bíróság előzetes döntéshozatali kérelemmel fordult az Európai Unió Bíróságához, melyben az uniós jog értelmezését kérte a magyarországi fizetésképtelenségi eljárás romániai joghatásával kapcsolatban. Korábbi blogbejegyzésünkben beszámoltunk az ENEFI és a romániai adóhatóság közötti jogvitában 2016.

The issuance of international bond debt, aka high yield notes, has been a very popular financing option for French companies for the last few years, whether it was to finance their industrial investments or to fund an LBO transaction.

The European Council Regulation No 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings (the Regulation) was adopted in May 2000 and came into force on 31 May 2002 in order to establish a European framework for cross-border insolvency proceedings.

The Regulation regulates: the jurisdiction for opening insolvency proceedings; recognition and enforcement of judgments for the opening of insolvency proceedings; the laws applicable to insolvency proceedings and their scope of applicability; and cooperation in a cross-border insolvency context.