On 1 November, the Supreme Court issued its judgment in R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates Court and Another.

Background

In its much-anticipated 2023 Autumn Statement, the UK Government has committed to extending the relief available to the hospitality, retail and leisure sector. It has also announced that a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion will be available to support small businesses and the high street. However, the hospitality sector remains one of the most vulnerable, and it remains to be seen whether this additional support will be enough.

The Bankruptcy Code does not explicitly authorize the equitable remedy of "substantive consolidation"—i.e., treating the assets and liabilities of two or more related entities as if they belonged to a single, consolidated bankruptcy estate. However, it is well recognized that a bankruptcy court has the authority to order such relief under appropriate circumstances in the exercise of its broad equitable powers when each of the original entities are already debtors subject to the court's jurisdiction.

In the recent case of Dilip B. Jiwrajka v. Union of India (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1281 of 2021), the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court (the “SC”) upheld the constitutionality of Sections 95 to 100 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”).

The pilot measure for mutual recognition and assistance of insolvency proceedings between the courts of three pilot areas in Mainland China and Hong Kong was agreed in mid-2021, which is known as the Cooperation Mechanism.

Since then, liquidators in Hong Kong have had a more certain and structured route to seek, through Hong Kong Court, recognition and assistance from the designated Mainland courts in the three pilot areas including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen.

Key Takeaways

A Section 363 sale is a sale of a company's assets pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Bankruptcy Court will approve a 363 sale if the debtor can demonstrate a "substantial business justification" for the sale.

Key Issues

In general, Section 363 bankruptcy sales proceed as follows:

Bankruptcy and appellate courts disagree over the standard that should apply to a request for payment of a break-up fee or expense reimbursement to the losing bidder in a sale of assets outside the ordinary course of the debtor's business. Some apply a "business judgment" standard, while others require that the proposed payments satisfy the more rigorous standard applied to administrative expense claims.

The High Court has recently considered and allowed the application of an opposing creditor to extend the time allocated for the hearing to sanction a restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006. David Garner reports on the sanction hearing below.

Oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. happened on December 4, 2023. Here is a link to the official transcript of such arguments.

My Impression

I’ve read that transcript—and still don’t know what the Court is going to do.

But based on the comments/questions of the justices (which are summarized and compiled below), I do have one impression:

Section 1124(2) of the Bankruptcy Code gives chapter 11 debtors a valuable tool for use in situations where long-term prepetition debt carries a significantly lower interest rate than the rates available at the time of emergence from bankruptcy. Under this section, in a chapter 11 plan, the debtor can "cure" any defaults under the relevant agreement and "reinstate" the maturity date and other terms of the original agreement, thus enabling the debtor to "lock in" a favorable interest rate in a prepetition loan agreement upon bankruptcy emergence.