Summary

We reported in December 2014 that the amendments to the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceeding (the Recast Regulation) were virtually finalised and agreed between the various legislative organs of the European Union.

Finally after several years, the debate is now over and the European Parliament has now approved the final text – broadly as it was in December 2014. The outcome is good news for cross border corporate restructurings and insolvencies around Europe, but it will not come into force for over two years.

Next steps

The Supreme Court’s decision in a dispute over a parent company guarantee will change the way insolvency practitioners deal with the distribution of assets when a corporate group collapses.

 Summary

In its communication on an EU framework for crisis management in the financial sector dated 20 October 2010, the European Commission set out several major legislative proposals aimed at preventing a repeat of the recent bank failures that necessitated significant state aid.

This briefing discusses certain Spanish tax points regarding financially distressed and insolvent corporate taxpayers, (secondary) tax liabilities and preferential rights in relation to tax claims.

Although safeguard proceedings have been used successfully as a negotiation tool in a number of high-profile cases (such as the Eurotunnel case), they have represented just 1 per cent of all insolvency proceedings in France since the Business Safeguard Act 2005 introduced the safeguard procedure in January 2006. The main reason for this lack of success is the continuing stigma that is attached to insolvency proceedings in France.

On 18 March 2021, the UK Government published its white paper on restoring trust in audit and corporate governance. On 31 May 2022, the Government published its response to the consultation.

In August 2021, Sir Alistair Norris sanctioned the restructuring plan of Amicus Finance PLC (Amicus) (as we wrote about at the time). On 15 November 2021, the judge handed down his reasoning for sanctioning the plan.

Background

Last week was a busy week for the courts: we reported on the landlord-led challenges to the New Look CVA and the Virgin Active restructuring plan. Neither judgment made happy reading for landlords, with all challenges dismissed in New Look and the restructuring plan sanctioned despite their objections in Virgin Active. The story has slightly improved for landlords today with the court revoking the Regis CVA. There are important findings from Regis, but in itself the judgment will not be sufficient to turn the tide.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) introduced significant changes to insolvency law, including permitting companies to propose a “restructuring plan”. The restructuring plan offers a flexible option for companies that sponsor defined benefit pension schemes to compromise their obligations to creditors and, potentially, to the pension scheme itself.

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