Last Friday, financial services group Dexia SA announced that it had reached an agreement with the European Commission relating to its restructuring plan. Dexia had previously received approximately €6.4 billion in bailout money from Belgium, France and Luxembourg. Pursuant to the negotiated restructuring plan, Dexia will:
Like many legal tests, the test for insolvency is easy to state, but hard to apply in practice.
The United Kingdom Supreme Court (UKSC)1 has recently issued an important clarification, which confirms that an element of forwards projection must be applied – extending in extreme cases to assessments of balance-sheet as well as cash-flow solvency.
This liberal approach is likely to be followed in New Zealand, despite differences in statutory wording.
It has a long been a principle of company law that the debts of a company are not the debts of its shareholders. It may be a surprise to some that this principle does not apply to certain tax debts thanks to section 181 of the Tax Administration Act No.28 of 2011 (“section 181”). This section allows shareholders to be held jointly or individually liable for the tax debts of their company. At first glance it seems unfair to punish those who do not manage the day-to-day running of a company.
In terms of section 64B(5)(c) of the Act the following amounts will be exempt when distributed in the course of or in anticipation of the liquidation, winding up, deregistration or final termination of the corporate existence of a company or close corporation, provided that certain steps are taken within 18 months from the date of the liquidation distribution, namely;
On August 19, 2011, the Federal Minister of Finance released a significant package of proposed amendments to Canada’s income tax rules applicable to Canadian multinational corporations with foreign affiliates (the Proposals). The Proposals apply to most distributions from, and reorganizations of, foreign subsidiaries of Canadian corporations and contain new rules applicable to certain loans received from foreign subsidiaries that remain outstanding for at least two years, among other significant changes. In addition to certain important new measures, the Proposals replace numero
Although originating from equity, declared but unpaid dividends have historically been treated as debt claims by courts in proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).1 Following the coming into force of the CCAA amendments in September 2009, a fresh look at the characterization of claims as debt or equity is being undertaken.
Case Comment - Re White Birch Paper Holding Co.
The purchase of an insolvent company’s assets by way of a credit bid has recently garnered attention, primarily because of the use of a credit bid in the Canwest Publishing Group restructuring. This past September the issue was again addressed under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”), this time by the Quebec Superior Court in the restructuring of White Birch Paper Holding Co. (“WBP”). The Court reaffirmed the acceptance of credit bids by Canadian courts.
Ontario Court Stays Retaliatory Action brought against Bank
Financial institutions seeking to enforce a debt or guarantee through bankruptcy or other court proceedings are sometimes faced with meritless retaliatory court actions brought by debtors attempting to frustrate or further delay payment. In general, Ontario courts will not compel parties to litigate the same dispute on multiple fronts. Instead, one proceeding will be temporarily stayed pending resolution of the other where the same core issues are raised in both.
On July 14, 2009, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released its decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Reliance Insurance Company, an application regarding the allocation of surplus arising from the liquidation of the Canadian branch (Reliance Canada) of U.S.-based Reliance Insurance Company (Reliance U.S.), a property and casualty insurer that was itself in liquidation.
Often, when creditors start to take action against a debtor, the debtor will seek relief through the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act(i). Some Trustees in bankruptcy even advertise that the bankruptcy process can be an important step on the road to “financial well being”. Creditors, upon receiving notice of their Debtor’s bankruptcy, may feel that the chance of any recovery all but disappears with the assignment into bankruptcy.