The legal position on whether internal restructurings within South African businesses require prior approval from the competition authorities has been uncertain for some time. In a welcome development, on 24 January 2025, the Competition Commission took steps to clarify this issue by publishing draft guidelines on internal restructurings.
On 31 December 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (the "Federal Court of Appeals") ruled that the uptiering transaction conducted by Serta Simmons Bedding LLC ("Serta") did not constitute an "open market purchase", reversing the 2023 summary judgment of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the "Texas Bankruptcy Court") that rejected the excluded lenders' claims for breach of the credit agreement. The Federal Court of Appeals also reversed the approval of certain plan provisions relating to an indemnity for the uptiering transaction.
The common law of assignments for benefit of creditors (“ABCs”) has been around for a very long time as an out-of-court process under the law of trusts: debtor is trustor, assignee is trustee, and debtor’s creditors are beneficiaries.
And the common law of ABCs had already been well-established, when the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
key takeaways
The insolvency of a premises licence holder has an immediate impact from a licensing perspective. Most premises licences are granted in perpetuity. They can be surrendered by the holder, temporarily lapse if annual fees are not paid, or be revoked following a review. These are actions the licence holder either proactively instigates or is given notice of. However, a licence lapsing because of insolvency is different because the premises licence holder may be unaware that a licence has lapsed and it may be too late to rectify matters when the lapse is brought to their attention.
Trustees in Bankruptcy seeking to make distributions to a creditor who may be subject to UK sanctions should follow the guidance in the recent case of Thomas, Carter, Nilsson (as the joint trustees in bankruptcy of Nikolay Fetisov and Ilya Yurov) and PJSC National Bank Trust [2025] EWHC 75 (Ch).
Background
TLT were instructed to act on behalf of the joint Trustees in Bankruptcy of two Russian individuals, Nikolay Fetisov and Ilya Yurov.
Overview
We asked our team for their predictions of what they think 2025 might bring in the Property Disputes sector.
Insolvencies and Restructuring
Author - Thomas H. Curran
Firm -Thomas H. Curran Associates
Seán Dunne, the once-buccaneering property developer who embodied the hubris of the Celtic Tiger boom and now the ravages of the bust, will be 73 years old when he finally exits bankruptcy.
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics, according to Mark Twain, are pliable. While the author of Tom Sawyer likely wasn’t thinking about the annual UK insolvency statistics, they certainly illustrate his point. The Telegraph uses the 2024 statistics, released Tuesday, to criticise Rachel Reeves, suggesting that an increase in compulsory liquidations in 2024 is a direct result of the October budget. Given that the financial impact of the budget will not be felt directly by businesses until April 2025, this is very much a case of putting the cart before the horse.
Published on 21 January 2025, In the matter of Restore Builders Limited [2024] JRC290 (“Restore Builders”), is the first time the Royal Court of Jersey (“Court”) has made a wrongful trading order.
As discussed below, the Court held that Thomas McLaughlin (“Respondent”) be disqualified as a company director for 10 years, and be personally responsible for the debts of Restore Builders Limited (“Company”).