Dubai World – government releases details of a tailor-made restructuring process

In the wake of the high profile financial problems affecting the Dubai World group, the Dubai government has announced a new reorganisation law in case that group is unable to achieve an acceptable restructuring of its debts. New legislation was needed because the status of Dubai World as a company incorporated under special legislation means that the UAE insolvency laws do not apply to it. The new legislation:

In the wake of the high profile financial problems affecting the Dubai World group, the Dubai government has announced a new reorganisation law in case that group is unable to achieve an acceptable restructuring of its debts. New legislation was needed because the status of Dubai World as a company incorporated under special legislation means that the UAE insolvency laws do not apply to it. The new legislation:

In Sian Participation Corporation (In Liquidation) v Halimeda International Ltd [2024] UKPC 16, the Privy Council considered an appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI) as to whether a company should be wound up where the debt on which the winding up application is based is subject to an arbitration agreement and is said to be disputed and/or subject to a cross-claim.

Unique nature of UAE property market

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) over the weekend announced a number of proposed changes to UK insolvency law in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal reconfirmed that the Duomatic principle can only apply where all shareholders have approved the relevant act of the company. It is not enough that a relevant individual would have approved the act had they known about it: Dickinson v NAL Realisations (Staffordshire) Ltd [2019] EWCA CIV 2146.

The High Court has ordered a liquidator's firm to pay a proportion of the costs incurred by successful defendants following judgment in proceedings commenced by a claimant company in liquidation.

The High Court has ordered a liquidator’s firm to pay a proportion of the costs incurred by successful defendants following judgment in proceedings commenced by a claimant company in liquidation.

A case study of what to look out for when a tenant or its guarantor is looking like it is heading for financial difficulties

As a prudent and prepared landlord, it's always sensible to assess what potential remedies you might have should a tenant (or its guarantor) become insolvent or enter into some form of insolvency procedure. In this bulletin, we look at a short hypothetical case study and identify some of the key issues that landlords will need to assess in such circumstances.

1. The case study scenario

Revisiting over 150 years of case law, the High Court has resolved a question on which both the courts and textbooks had given conflicting answers: is a director's liability for payment of a dividend which is unlawful as a result of incorrect accounts fault-based or strict?