With the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill having received Royal Assent, Penningtons Manches Cooper’s real estate litigation team sets out below an overview of the restrictions now coming into force.
There are restrictions on the service of statutory demands and winding-up petitions where a debtor company is unable to pay sums claimed due to coronavirus, which are due to expire on 31 March 2022.
Re Samson Paper Holdings Ltd[2021] 5 HKLRD 286
The Company convened a meeting of unsecured creditors for considering and approving a proposed scheme (“Scheme”) of arrangement restructuring the Company’s unsecured debt. The statutory majority required by section 674 of the CO was obtained and the Company issued a petition seeking the court’s sanction of the Scheme.
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the High Court was right to restrict the assistance an English court could give to a Russian trustee in bankruptcy at common law, refusing to allow immoveable property situated in England to be administered by the trustee as part of the foreign bankruptcy proceedings: Kireeva v Bedzhamov [2022] EWCA Civ 35.
MR DOLLAR BILL LTD V PERSONS UNKNOWN AND OTHERS [2021] EWHC 2718 (Ch)
Excellent Asia (BVI) Ltd v Mas Media Group Ltd[2021] HKCFI 3605
In March 2020, the Petitioner presented a petition to wind up the Respondent company, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, on the ground of insolvency.
Failing to state in the Petition how the three core requirements are satisfied, the Petitioner subsequently took out a summons seeking to introduce a re-amendment to assert matters that are capable of satisfying the three core requirements.
With the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill (the Bill) now in its final stages, Penningtons Manches Cooper’s real estate litigation team sets out below an overview of the new restrictions that will come into force when the Bill is given Royal Assent.
Current restrictions
It may first be beneficial to review the current moratorium that is in place. The majority of these restrictions expire on 25 March 2022 and the insolvency restrictions expire on 31 March 2022 but, until those dates, the following apply:
The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 ("CIGA") came into force on 26 June 2020. CIGA was rushed through Parliament at the very height of concerns that businesses faced a devastating economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. CIGA has been the biggest change to the insolvency landscape since the Enterprise Act in 2003.
Aralık 2021’de kaleme aldığımız yazımızda belirttiğimiz üzere, 2004 sayılı İcra İflas Kanunu’nda [“İİK”] yapılan 24 Kasım 2021 tarihli değişikle, haczedilen malların satışının tamamen elektronik ortamda yapılması düzenlenmişti. Ancak, söz konusu uygulamanın yürürlüğe konulacak yönetmelikten sonra başlayacağı öngörülmüştü.
The expected regulation was published in the Official Gazette no. 31772 on March 8, 2022, and entered into force on the same date with the title “Regulation on the Procedure of Electronic Sales Pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Code” [the “Regulation”].
Nuoxi Capital Ltd (In Liquidation in the British Virgin Islands) v Peking UniversityFounder Group Co Ltd[2021] HKCFI 3817