Thomas Edison famously said that “opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Consistent with Edison’s musings, companies in an acquisition mode often overlook opportunities that arise in the bankruptcy arena because they lack knowledge of the system and think bankruptcy is an unruly beast dressed in extra-large overalls.

Nel quinto appuntamento con lo studio di Francesco Calabria sulla liquidazione dei fondi immobiliari, Francesco illustra gli strumenti di prevenzione e mitigazione delle responsabilità post liquidazione.

Stabilite le modalità con le quali si intende dare attuazione al programma di liquidazione di un FIA, il secondo passaggio fondamentale da effettuarsi a cura della SGR riguarda l’individuazione di appropriati strumenti di prevenzione delle responsabilità patrimoniali che potranno emergere successivamente alla chiusura della procedura di liquidazione.

In 2016 the High Court considered the validity of an assignment of a lease by a tenant to its guarantor. The antiavoidance provisions in section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 ("1995 Act") strictly limit the freedom of contract of parties to leases governed by that Act, broadly, those granted after 1995. Agreements which frustrate those provisions are void even if they are commercially justifiable.

BRIEF FACTS AND DECISION

EMI Group Limited v O&H Q1 Limited [2016] EWHC 529 (Ch)

The Supreme Court's decision in Lehman Waterfall I was handed down this morning. DLA Piper represents one of the successful appellants, Lehman Brothers Limited (in administration) (LBL).

The court was asked to consider certain issues relating to distributions in the estate of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), an unlimited company in administration. Such issues arose due to a substantial anticipated surplus in LBIE and sought to resolve particular lacunas in UK insolvency legislation.

The recent case of Singularis Holdings Ltd v Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd [2017] EWHC 257 (Ch) (Singularis) is an important decision affecting any institution that handles client payments, including banks. It decided that a stock broker was liable in negligence for having breached its duty of care to its customer, Singularis Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) (Singularis), by paying monies out of its client account on the instruction of one of Singularis' directors and its only shareholder, Mr Al Sanea.

Background

The Australian government is working to significantly reform Australia’s current insolvency laws by mid-2017.

The reforms are intended to achieve greater likelihood of business preservation by introducing the flexibility to achieve real turnaround of businesses in crisis.

The proposed changes include:

This edition of Global Insight comes to you shortly after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

A recent Federal Court of Australia decision has granted the Australian Commissioner of Taxation the right to recover, from a failed foreign company’s Australian assets, the pari passu amount the Commissioner would have been entitled to receive (on account of outstanding domestic tax and penalties) if he had been allowed to prove in the liquidation before the assets are remitted to the company’s foreign representatives (the liquidators). 

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey recently held that a Cayman Islands collateralized-debt obligation issuer (“CDO”) could be a debtor under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) and declined to dismiss an involuntary case commenced against the CDO by certain noteholders on the grounds that the notes held by such noteholders were “non-recourse” notes. Below is a discussion of the court’s decision and its potential implications. The decision is currently being appealed.

Funds' assets in the U.S. has been denied by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. See 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 2949, *26 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Aug. 30 , 2007). The Funds were being liquidated in the Cayman Islands, but the bankruptcy court held that they were not eligible for Chapter 15 relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (the "Code") because the liquidations were not pending in a country where the Funds had their "center of main interests" or an "establishment" for the conduct of business.