The decision of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands (‘the Cayman Court’) to grant common law recognition and assistance to liquidators appointed by the High Court of Hong Kong (‘the Hong Kong Court’) over an exempted Cayman Islands incorporated company – without parallel insolvency proceedings in Cayman – is likely to be welcomed widely by insolvency practitioners and lawyers involved in cross-border restructuring and insolvency in common law jurisdictions.

Introduction

The facts:

An application had been made by Bank of Scotland Plc and the Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (the Applicants) for a letter of request to be sent by the Royal Court of Jersey to the High Court of England and Wales in respect of four Jersey companies which were ultimate beneficial owners of English real estate.  

In the current economic environment, there are a number of entities that are being restructured. Our current experience has been that such restructurings fall into two areas, namely a debt for equity swap or a release of “toxic” assets from a group structure in order to minimise exposure to this asset class.

Debt for Equity Swap

How should liquidators deal with the administrative burden of adjudicating thousands of low-value proof of debts in a liquidation estate, without exhausting the limited assets available in the liquidation estate? The Grand Court recently sanctioned a pragmatic solution.

Introduction

When a Cayman Islands company (CayCo) goes into official liquidation, various antecedent transactions entered into in the lead up to that liquidation may be set aside, thereby allowing the recovery of assets of the CayCo to maximise the return to its stakeholders. This snapshot sets out a summary of challenges that may be made to antecedent transactions in the Cayman Islands. These may also apply to Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships, Exempted Limited Partnerships and, in certain circumstances, to foreign companies, but this snapshot focuses on CayCos.

This briefing first appeared in the June 2020 edition of South Square Digest.

Executive Summary

In February 2020 the British Virgin Islands Commercial Court (the "BVI Court") sanctioned a creditor scheme of arrangement, which was part of a much larger cross boarder restructuring. This scheme of arrangement, which as a creditor scheme was itself rare for the BVI, was preceded by the BVI's first ever "soft touch" provisional liquidation (in linked proceedings), which commenced in December 2018.

On 15 January 2020 the States of Guernsey is due to pass the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Insolvency) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, making Guernsey an even more desirable forum for insolvency proceedings. The new legislation is set to modernise Guernsey insolvency law, bringing the jurisdiction into line with not only the UK but other offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

The recognition of the powers of an English trustee in bankruptcy in Guernsey is generally pursued either by way of a letter of request issued by the foreign court pursuant to section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (Insolvency Act) or by way of an application via the common or customary law.

In September 2012, Grant Thornton were appointed by the Royal Court of Guernsey as joint administrators of a Guernsey company called Montenegro investments limited (MIL) - a Guernsey property Investment Fund..  The joint administrators then appointed Ogier.

Current Status of MIL