Background

Houst Ltd (“the Company”) is a property management company which specialises in short-term holiday rentals through an online platform. It is an SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) with total liabilities of approximately £10 million at stake. The Company became both cashflow and balance sheet insolvent having experienced financial difficulty during the Covid pandemic and this resulted in creditors having threatened winding-up petitions.

On 30 August 2022, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal overturned the Court of First Instance's decision in the case of Guy Kwok-Hung Lam v Tor Asia Credit Master Fund LP and held that a creditor's bankruptcy petition presented in Hong Kong should not be allowed to proceed where the petitioned debt was disputed and arose from an agreement with an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of a foreign court.

On August 11, 2022, the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (“NAIC”) Executive (EX) Committee adopted a request from the Restructuring Mechanisms (E) Working Group (“RM Working Group”) to reopen the Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association Model Act (#540) (“Model Act #540”) for amendment to ensure that policyholders will retain guaranty fund coverage following an insurance business transfer (“IBT”) or corporate division (“CD”).

Summary

The Hong Kong Court and the US Bankruptcy Court have made conflicting comments regarding the discharge of New York law-governed debt by a foreign scheme of arrangement, where that scheme is the subject of recognition under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code.

The Insolvency Service recently published a consultation with respect to the proposed implementation of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") Model Law on Recognition and Enforcement of Insolvency-Related Judgments, which concerns cross-border recognition of judgments associated with insolvency proceedings, an

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.

In a somewhat unexpected development given his recent appointment to a second 14-year term a mere 5 years ago, Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York announced that he intends to retire as of June 30, 2022.

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas dismissed the National Rifle Association’s (“NRA”) bankruptcy case on May 11, finding that the case was not filed in good faith. In his opinion, Judge Harlin Hale found that there was cause for dismissal because the case was filed “to gain unfair litigation advantage and … to avoid a state regulatory scheme,” neither of which he considered to be a purpose intended or sanctioned by the Bankruptcy Code.

In what is the third, sanctioned restructuring plan since the introduction of Part 26A Companies Act 2006 in June 2020, the previously untested “cross-class cram-down” mechanism has now been applied for the first time. Cross-class cram-down being the ability to impose a restructuring plan on dissenting stakeholders whether or not those dissenting creditors form part of the same class as the approving creditors.

CEC Entertainment, the parent company of kid-friendly and iconic “dinnertainment” restaurant and arcade chain—Chuck E.