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Restructuring Advisory Director, Luke Wilson sits down with Neil Taylor, founder and managing director of NTI, on the CPD Tap podcast to explore the latest insolvency trends.

1.1 The overriding objective

(1) The overriding objective of these rules is to enable the court to deal with cases justly.

(2) Dealing justly with the case includes –

(a) ensuring, so far as is practicable, that the parties are on an equal footing;

(b) saving expense;

(c) dealing with cases in ways which are proportionate to the –

(i) amount of money involved;

(ii) importance of the case;

(iii) complexity of the issues; and (iv) financial position of each party;

(d) ensuring that it is dealt with expeditiously; and

The long anticipated law of 7 June 2023 implementing the European Directive on restructuring and insolvency brings about a major reform of Belgian insolvency law. Among various other innovations, it introduces a new judicial reorganisation through collective agreement for large enterprises.

The new law will apply to all procedures opened as from 1 September 2023.

In this second of two client alerts, we will examine to which extent creditors can seek to impose a debt-to-equity swap on shareholders within the new judicial reorganisation for large enterprises.

The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) offsetting mechanism will be cancelled on 1 May 2025

By then, Hong Kong employers can no longer offset severance and long service payments owed to employees against MPF benefits derived from employers' contributions. The Hong Kong government decided in July 2023 not to implement the "Specialized Savings Account Scheme" proposed in 2018 which would require employers to create dedicated savings accounts and make 1% contributions to prepare for the abolishment of such MPF offsetting arrangement. 

After a 10-month inquiry process, on 12 July 2023 the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJC) delivered its final report on the effectiveness of Australia’s corporate insolvency laws.

In this alert, we distil some of the key findings from the almost 400-page report and consider what future law reforms might look like.

A COMPLEX AND INEFFICIENT SYSTEM

An article for Insolvency Practitioners and other insolvency specialists outlining the challenges and pitfalls of obtaining recognition of a Trustee in Bankruptcy to enable enforcement over assets in France in a post-Brexit and post-Covid cross-border insolvency landscape.

Introduction

强制性公积金（强积金）对冲安排将于 2025 年 5 月 1 日取消

届时，香港雇主将不能再以雇主供款所得的强积金利益抵销需向雇员支付的遣散费 和长期服务金。香港政府于 2023 年 7 月决定不实施 2018 年提出的“专项储蓄户 口计划”，该计划要求雇主设立专门的储蓄户口并缴纳 1%的供款，为取消该强积 金对冲安排做好准备。

行政成本过高

经估算，于专项储蓄户口计划运行初期，每年行政成本约 1.5 亿港元，30 年后将增至 6 亿港 元。成本高昂的原因是繁重的行政工作，包括：

(1) 规管及确保现时 30 多万名需为强积金强制供款的雇主成功开立储蓄户口；

(2) 每月收取供款；

(3) 核实及审批提款申请；及

(4) 处理未能预见的情况。

此外，预计该计划的程序将极其复杂，因 此无法避免外判服务机构处理该计划日常 运作的成本。

最后，雇主还需承担遵守该计划的相关行 政职责。 

破产欠薪保障基金

У 2023 році процедура банкрутства в Україні зазнала вагомих змін з огляду на необхідність приведення законодавства у відповідність до стандартів ЄС та враховуючи виклики, зумовлені воєнним станом.

Верховною Радою України було прийнято 2 закони, які впроваджують ряд нововведень у процедурі банкрутства, спрямованих на її спрощення та автоматизацію, а також усувають чимало неузгодженостей та технічних недоліків у Кодексі України з процедур банкрутства (далі – КУзПБ).

In our latest article, Financial Advisory Partner, Jim Davies, explores the valuation element of Restructuring Plans.

Three years in, how is the RP valuation debate evolving?

Letting a single property for a limited period of time can amount to “carrying on business” for the purposes of section 265(2)(b)(ii) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), as confirmed in the recent case Durkan v Jones [2023] EWHC 1359 (Ch).

Background