Following huge trading losses and the discovery of alleged fraud in a Singaporean subsidiary, O.W. Bunker & Trading A.S. filed for bankruptcy on 7 November 2014in the Danish court, just seven months after the company floated on the stock market.  Since then, a number of other O.W. Bunker Danish and overseas entities have also filed for bankruptcy.

Year in Review - German Law in 2016

Corporate and Commercial

Amendment to the Stock Corporation Act: The Amendment to the Stock Corporation Act 2016 (Aktien-rechtsnovelle 2016) introduced, among other things, the option to issue preference shares without subsequent payment, an extended conversion right for convertible bonds, a limitation of the issue of bearer shares for non-listed companies and new provisions on the due dates of dividend payments.

Deutsches Recht: Blick zurück 2016

Unternehmens- und Gesellschaftsrecht

Der Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) hat in einer Entscheidung im Frühjahr dieses Jahres sowie einer weiteren Entscheidung im Sommer seine bisherige Rechtsprechung zum Vorliegen genehmigungsfähiger Investitionsmaßnahmen nach § 23 Abs. 1 Anreizregulierungsverordnung (ARegV) fortgesetzt und weiter ausdifferenziert.

In a recent case decided by the Federal Court of Justice (judgment of 15 November 2012 – IX ZR 169 / 11), an energy supplier had entered into a contract with a customer “which should also terminate without notice if the customer makes an application for insolvency or where preliminary insolvency proceedings are initiated or opened based on an application by a creditor”. When the customer was forced to declare insolvency, the energy supplier and the customer’s insolvency administrator entered into a new energy-supply contract at higher rates, subject to a review of the legal position.

These days, the threat of counterparty insolvency looms over the energy sector: whether it is a natural disaster or precipitous decline in the price of oil, perhaps no industry is more susceptible to the financial decline and potential default of contracting parties.

Piggybacking off the case study involving a UK-based company in crisis after an oil spill in Nigeria, panelists Ryan Eagle of Ferrier Hodgson, Marcelo Carpenter of Sergio Bermudes Law Office, David Kelleher of Fortress Investment Group (Australia) Pty Ltd., and Fidelis Oditach of South Square discussed the key decision-making factors of investing in a similarly-situated oil and gas company. Some of the key takeaways applicable to investing in oil and gas companies generally were:

Introduction

Key Highlights

I. Supreme Court: Scope of intervention by High Courts in cases of orders passed by the National Company Law Tribunal

II. Supreme Court: State legislature cannot enact law which affects the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

III. Supreme Court: Difference between inadequacy of reasons in arbitral award and unintelligible awards

IV. NCLT: RP can take possession of a corporate debtor's assets which are subject matter of litigation to facilitate the corporate insolvency resolution process

NEW GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION PROGRAMME: INDUSTRY & SECTOR SPECIFIC BREAKDOWN 19 JANUARY 2015 The Irish Government has published its legislation programme for the Spring/Summer 2015 parliamentary session. There are 32 Bills which are currently before the Oireachtas. In addition, there are 137 proposed Bills set out in the Programme, 41 of which the Government intends publishing during the Spring/Summer Session.