In Tri-State Signature Homes Ltd, Re, 2017 ABQB 587, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ruled that the statutory stay of proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) does not prevent a creditor of the insolvent person from demanding payment under a letter of credit.

On September 19, the Dutch District Court ruled in the first ever Dutch court case on the transfer pricing implications of a large business restructuring and confirmed the legal certainty that taxpayers can derive from thorough transfer pricing documentation. The case was litigated by the Tax Dispute Resolution group of Baker McKenzie Amsterdam.

On 23 June 2017, a reform to the Federal Criminal Code was enacted to classify the criminal offense of “illegal extrajudicial debt collection” established in article 284 Bis. 

Third party releases in a chapter 11 plan have become fairly common in the United States. A recent decision by the Delaware District Court in Opt-Out Lenders v. Millennium Lab Holdings II, LLC (In re Millennium Lab Holdings II, LLC), however, questions whether the bankruptcy court has the authority to approve nonconsensual third party releases as part of confirmation of a chapter 11 plan.

Rian Matthews and Kate Ballantine-Dykes from Baker McKenzie have published an article entitled “Common law to the rescue: bridging gaps in international and domestic restructuring and insolvency regimes” in Corporate Rescue and Insolvency.

Court of Appeal sets the record straight

The key point 

Earlier today, a full bench of the New South Wales Court of Appeal handed down a significant decision affecting approach to judicial review and approval of liquidator remuneration. Significantly, existing tension between decisions of different judges at first instance, and between NSW and Federal courts, has been resolved.

The Belgian Act of 11 July 2013 on security over movables (the Security over Movables Act) will modernise Belgium's legislation in respect of security over movables. On 7 November 2016, a draft bill has been published postponing the entry into effect of the Security over Movables Act until 1 January 2018 at the latest. In addition to the postponement, the draft bill also fine-tunes certain technical aspects of the Security over Movables Act to achieve maximum legal certainty and practical usefulness.

Contracts, agreements, arrangements and rights to which the stay on enforcing ipso facto clauses does not apply; final Regulations and Declaration published

The reform and its progress

The Hong Kong court in Re The Joint Liquidators of Supreme Tycoon Limited (in liquidation in the British Virgin Islands) (08/02/2018, HCMP833/2017), [2018] HKCFI 277 (“Re Supreme Tycoon”) has, for the first time, granted recognition and assistance to foreign liquidators appointed in a creditors’ voluntary winding-up.

Earlier this year, the Alberta Court of Appeal, in Grant Thornton Ltd. v. Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 ABCA 124 decided that secured creditors in a bankruptcy should be paid before environmental claims arising from abandoned oil and gas wells. There was a strong dissent and Alberta’s energy regulator is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.