Summary

A new law which came into force on 8 August 2015 now permits a French court to enforce debt-for-equity swaps. Where the debtor company is in judicial reorganisation proceedings (redressement judiciaire) and if certain conditions are met, the court can either:

Third parties associated with an employer may find themselves liable to contribute to the employer's occupational pension scheme.

In Bridge Trustees Limited v Noel Penny, Judge Purle QC, sitting as an additional Judge of the High Court, held that the Court could use its inherent jurisdiction to permit an independent trustee to distribute surplus in a scheme that was winding-up. Under the Pensions Act 1995, an independent trustee is appointed to exercise powers otherwise conferred on the employer where an insolvency practitioner begins to act in relation to a company.

In a consultation commenced on 7 July 2022, the UK Insolvency Service is proposing to implement two “model laws” adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

On 12 May 2021, the High Court sanctioned Virgin Active’s Part 26A restructuring plan which had been heavily contested by certain landlords. This is the third restructuring plan to use cross-class cramdown (first used in the DeepOcean Group and subsequently in Smile Telecoms), and the first to bind dissenting landlord classes to lease compromises.

On Friday 18 September 2020 the German Federal Ministry of Justice published draft legislation which has the potential of fundamentally changing the restructuring landscape in Germany.

An essential part of the law is the introduction of a corporate stabilisation and restructuring regime, which establishes a comprehensive legal framework for out-of-court restructurings in Germany on the basis of the EU Restructuring Directive of 20 June 2019 (Directive (EU) 2019/1023) (the Preventive Restructuring Framework).

On 18 December 2018 the English Court of Appeal held in the case of OJSC International Bank of Azerbaijan that the rule in Gibbs is still a fundamental tenet of English insolvency law and not to be sidestepped by the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations.

Facts

The facts in summary are these:

Much Anticipated Extraterritoriality Ruling Could Have Far-Ranging Implications

The High Court has in the past month ruled on two challenges to company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) on the grounds of unfair prejudice and material irregularity,  reaching a different conclusion in each case. 

A company went into administration and company voluntary arrangements were entered into to effect a rescue of viable parts of the group. As part of that process, a valuation of the liabilities of the companies as at 1 October 2001 was required. They included claims arising under section 75 of the Pensions Act 1995. However, those debts were not triggered until July 2004 and the scheme actuary for did not sign the section 75 certificates and apportion shares amongst the various companies until March 2006.