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.

The reforms respond to the needs of small and medium-sized companies, speed up processes and support business recovery

The Spanish Congress has approved (30 June 2022) the Insolvency Law Reform Bill, which transposes the Directive on restructuring and insolvency. A first text was approved in December 2021, but amendments were introduced throughout the first half of 2022 that modified several important points.

The Insolvency Service is satisfied that the restructuring plan and moratorium processes are broadly meeting their policy objectives – and that ipso facto clauses are likely to be used more in future

Insolvency practitioners will welcome the confirmation that they cannot be expected to be aware of same degree of information as if company was still trading

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that although insolvent parties may refer disputes to adjudication, they will have difficulty enforcing adjudication decisions in all but exceptional circumstances

When companies face cashflow and other pressures, early action can assist with the assessment and mitigation of these risks

Events since the start of the decade have brought accelerated and transformative change across the UK business landscape and economy. The way businesses, employers and employees work and how business growth is driven has changed and is changing profoundly.

On 14 January 2022, it was published in the Official Journal of the Spanish Parliament, the draft law of the Insolvency Act for the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on preventive restructuring frameworks, debt waivers and disqualifications, and on measures to improve the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and debt waiver procedures, and amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 (Restructuring and Insolvency Directive) (hereinafter, the "Draft Law").

Does the extension of pandemic protections risk creating 'zombie' businesses in the building sector?

The government has extended measures in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA) to protect businesses during the pandemic until 30 September 2021.

The CIGA came into force on 26 June 2020. It introduced new procedures and measures to rescue companies in financial distress as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pandemic protection

The Council of Ministers has approved the creation of the Fund for the Recapitalisation of Companies Affected by COVID-19 (the "FREAC"), which will be funded with 1,000 million euros and will be managed directly by COFIDES. The purpose of the FREAC is to provide a temporary public support under criteria of profitability, risk and impact on sustainable development, in order to strengthen the solvency of medium-sized companies with registered offices in Spain.

An appellate court judgment will bring comfort to liquidators of insolvent companies in respect of the limitation periods applicable in cases of fraud or deliberate concealment