In the first of our short videos in relation to business recovery and resilience, John Alderton (Partner in our Restructuring & Insolvency team), responds to the question:
‘There hasn’t been a wave of insolvencies, is business stress still there or are we through the worst of it?’
Please click here to listen to John’s answer.
In August 2021, Raízen S.A. (one of the largest integrated energy companies in Brazil) merged with Biosev S.A. and Biosev Bioenergia S.A (sugar, ethanol and biomass producing businesses previously owned by the Louis Dreyfus group). Shortly prior to the completion of that merger, the agreement for which was signed in February 2021, Raízen completed one of the biggest initial public offerings in Brazil ever.
Imagine this: a U.S. District Court enters judgment in a case that’s “related to” a bankruptcy, and we want to file a motion for new trial or to amend the judgment.
So, which deadline applies to the motion:
This is how Tribune ends: not with a bang, but a whimper. The 12-year litigation saga, rooted in the spectacular failure of the media and sports conglomerate’s 2007 leveraged buyout, reached an end in late February with a curt “cert. denied” from the US Supreme Court.
Morgan Lewis was one of the firms that captained the defense for Tribune’s former shareholders. This post notes some lessons that we learned—and relearned.
Lesson One: Section 546(e)’s ‘New’ Safe Harbor
１ はじめに
法人が破産した場合、破産手続の終結に伴い、基本的に は法人格が消滅することになります。その結果、債務の負担 主体が消滅するため、債権も全て消滅することになります。こ れに対し、自然人（個人）が破産した場合、当然のことです が、破産手続が終結してもその自然人が消滅することはあり ません（そんなことになれば大変です。）。そうした場合に、配 当を得られなかった破産債権はどうなるのでしょうか。皆様の 中には、債務が「チャラ」になるというお話を聞かれたことがあ る方もおられるかもしれません。それはある意味的を射ていま すが、法的には少々不正確です。
Within the past 18 months, two bankruptcy courts have used the same factors, but reached opposite conclusions, about the characterization of two merchant cash advance funding transactions as either a “true sale” or not a “true sale” – and instead, a disguised financing. In doing so, the courts’ decisions confirm the importance of appropriate structuring to achieve true sale treatment.
We open the year with several events of major significance. The unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia is justifiably dominating the news cycle, with harrowing images of the impact of Russia's indiscriminate military bombardment on Ukrainian cities and towns. The invasion will have a substantial impact on the global economy. The conflict is also highly likely to have implications for our own domestic markets despite the geographical distance between us. Local sharemarkets have been volatile and oil prices have spiked in the last week.
１ 破産免責の手続
個人破産の手続においては、破産手続の開始の申立てが ある場合、免責許可の申立てもするのが通常である。免責制 度は、破産手続による配当を受けることができなかった債務 について責任を免れさせることによって破産者の経済的再生 を図る制度であり、積極的に不誠実な行為をした者でない限 り、破産者の経済的再生を付与するために免責を与えるべき との考え方が有力であり、破産管財人は、このような考え方に 基づき免責調査を行い、免責不許可事由が存在する場合、 裁判所に対してその旨の意見書を提出しており、東京地方 裁判所民事第20部（破産再生部）においても、免責不許可 事由に該当する事実があっても、その不誠実さの程度が著し い事例を除き、免責許可をしているのが通常である（破産・民 事再生の実務・破産編（第4版）595頁）。
Among many other accommodations, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) provided small business and individual debtors with expanded access to bankruptcy relief. The extended provisions include:
The shackles preventing stakeholders from putting pressure on companies will soon be firmly off as winding up petition protections and rental support end, warn Matthew Padian and Lucy Trott.
Those of us who dabble in the insolvency world keep a keen lookout for the Insolvency Service’s insolvency statistics whenever they appear.