This month sees a statement by the Charity Commission on the Ukraine crisis and how this impacts charities, and a factsheet released by the UK government on the impact the war has had on energy.

There are also some very interesting articles regarding support for domestic abuse victims to how to deal with Social Housing complaints.

Finally there is a press article on TLT’s involvement in the innovative second modular deal for Town and Country Housing and Legal and General Modular Homes.

Considerations of “environmental, social and governance” (or ESG) criteria with respect to a company’s management and operations continue to take on greater importance in lenders’ and investors’ credit and investment decisions. How a borrower or a target company measures up to these ever-developing ESG standards will impact its cost of capital and value to potential investors and acquirors.

In the construction sector solid cash flow throughout the supply chain is the lifeblood of most projects, no matter what size, and is arguably the single most important factor in ensuring that a project reaches its conclusion. However, the cumulative effect of various other factors such as Brexit, escalating global energy prices, the outlawing from 1 April 2022 of the use of the red diesel usage for construction plant, super inflation, higher material and labour costs and the end of government COVID-19 support schemes has led to increased lending costs and smaller profit margins.

GENERAL

Legislation

1. What main legislation is applicable to insolvencies and reorganisations?

In brief

The courts were busy in the second half of 2021 with developments in the space where insolvency law and environmental law overlap.

In Victoria, the Court of Appeal has affirmed the potential for a liquidator to be personally liable, and for there to be a prospective ground to block the disclaimer of contaminated land, where the liquidator has the benefit of a third-party indemnity for environmental exposures.¹

In the latest edition of Going concerns, Stephenson Harwood's restructuring and insolvency team touches on the extent of the automatic stay arising from the recognition of a foreign main proceeding under the Singapore Model Law cross-border recognition regime, the requirements for a pre-pack scheme of arrangement under the recent Singapore Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018, and the importance of Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") in the restructuring context.

Contents

Government support during the pandemic and extremely strong credit markets saw exceptional fund raising levels in 2021, in spite of a slower Q4. Borrowers secured increasingly favourable terms from their lenders, with only a little pushback as the year progressed. Private credit continued to compete for greater market share and found interesting opportunities in smaller and more complex names. 2021 has proved to be a record year for financings and the continued availability of cheap capital, with reasonable stability and outperformance from riskier credits.

Throughout the pandemic, a steady stream of government support was made available to prop-up businesses. As we move towards a New Normal, those support packages are being scaled-back. Many businesses are still recovering from the shock of the last 18 months and, with high levels of historic debt as an additional burden, are not yet back to full financial health.

La CNMV ha publicado un documento con “preguntas y respuestas” que pretende servir de ayuda en la interpretación por las sociedades cotizadas del régimen de operaciones vinculadas tras la reforma introducida por la Ley 5/2021 para la incorporación de la Directiva sobre derechos de los accionistas en las sociedades cotizadas. A continuación, se incluye un resumen de los criterios interpretativos ofrecidos por el organismo supervisor.

Referencias Jurídicas CMS

Artículos de fondo

The latest edition of our bulletin, edited by our colleagues in Australia.

Welcome to the first edition of our Commodities bulletin for 2022.