This 2022 review provides an overview of recent Australian Restructuring and Insolvency activity along with the laws, their application and recent trends and development in restructuring and insolvency activity.
Chapters:
UK judgment is a prompt for landlords to consider all angles to maximise rent recovery in harsh economic conditions
The UK High Court has ruled in in favour of a landlord whose original tenant and guarantor were held liable for the rent accrued on a gym in Leeds despite the subsequent assignee operating under a restructuring plan.
On 1 August 2022, the English High Court granted the administrators of Petropavlovsk PLC (the “Company”) permission to enter into a sale of its Russian assets to Russian entity UMMC-Invest (the “Proposed Sale”) amidst sanctions concerns.
The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) Scotland Act was passed by the Scottish Government on 28 June 2022 and enacted on 10 August 2022 (the "Act"). It makes two key changes to insolvency and diligence in Scotland.
Bankruptcy floor limit
On July 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal for Ontario allowed an appeal from the Order of a bankruptcy judge in Sirius Concrete Inc. (Re), 2022 ONCA 524 (Sirius), which ruled that certain funds paid by a trade creditor formed part of the bankrupt’s estate. The issue on appeal was whether a constructive trust should be imposed over certain funds due to a claim of unjust enrichment arising from alleged fraudulent misrepresentations made by the bankrupt on the eve of its bankruptcy filing.
In May 2022, HM Treasury published a consultation to take views on how best to regulate the failure of stablecoin companies using pre-existing insolvency legislation. Stablecoin companies are classed by the UK Government as systemic “digital settlement asset” (DSA) firms. A large failure could have a significant disruptive effect on the economy, so the area requires robust statutory processes in place to manage any wind-down.
Restructuring debt obligations under Singapore law can be an attractive option for companies seeking debtor-led reorganisations, as the country aims to be a centre for debt restructuring in Asia. There are options for non-Singapore companies to take advantage of the jurisdiction’s scheme of arrangement regime.
Premise
Since the advent of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”), the insolvency law regime in India has been consolidated and uniformized. Courts have repeatedly held that the IBC is a code in itself and that one need not look elsewhere in deciding matters under it.
The corporate insolvency statistics for Q2 2022 paint a worrying picture for UK businesses. With inflation at a 40-year high, fuelled by soaring gas and electricity bills, food prices and wage increases, the cost of living crisis is taking hold across the economy.
It is common for construction project owners to finance projects through multiple mortgages, especially in times of rising construction costs. However, when an insolvency situation arises, holdback priority claims from contractors and subcontractors are particularly complex when there are multiple building mortgages involved. The Ontario Superior Court (Commercial List) provided new clarity in this regard in its April 29, 2022 decision in BCIMC Construction Fund Corp. et al.