The Virgin Active restructuring plan judgment was released last week, with a resounding win for Virgin Active over the opposing landlords. Melanie Leech, on behalf of the British Property Federation, said, "This Restructuring Plan sets a dangerous precedent and demonstrates how the law is now allowing wealthy individuals and private equity backers to extract value from their businesses in good times but later claim insolvency, as simply a means to get out of their contractual obligations with property owners.
A new framework will be introduced for the cooperation between the courts of Hong Kong and Mainland China on cross-border corporate insolvency.
The Secretary for Justice, Ms Teresa Cheng SC, and Vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), Mr Yang Wanming, signed a Record of Meeting in Shenzhen on 14 May 2021 to signify the consensus on the mutual recognition of and assistance to insolvency proceedings between the two places.
Pilot measure on mutual recognition and assistance
Dear Clients and Friends,
In 2020, domestic and international energy markets were challenged by a worldwide pandemic and its effect on commodity prices, which accelerated disruptions in supply chains and impacted the energy transition in countries around the world.
As the focus on ESG issues intensifies in the financial markets, we have seen institutional investors demand more in these areas, in terms of both disclosures and concrete targets, from banks and funds. Meanwhile, emerging regulations, and reforms designed to help meet climate change targets and to enhance corporate governance, sustainability and environmental and social responsibility are underway. How will refinancings and restructurings of the significant amount of corporate debt coming out of COVID be affected by such winds of change?
In a case with wide-reaching implications for the private equity industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a decade-long effort by distressed debt investors to undermine the safe harbor from avoidance actions set forth in Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code. On April 19, 2021, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari in the In re Tribune Company Fraudulent Conveyance Litigation (“Tribune”), preserving the safe harbor defense for LBOs established by the influential Second Circuit.
European Real Estate Finance: Market Update – Q1 2021 March 2021 Authors: Jeffrey Rubinoff, Dr. Thomas Flatten, Thierry Bosly, Hadrien Servais, Carl Hugo Parment, Fernando Navarro, Christophe Goossens, Julio Peralta, Angel Calleja, Aurélie Terlinden, Alexandra Stolt, Amitaben Patel & Brendon Vyas Further information on the response to COVID-19 can be found here, and we also have a German-language article, available here, looking at the impact on commercial leases. LIBOR Discontinuation Much has happened in the world of LIBOR Discontinuation since our last update.
This question is of particular importance considering further that the provisions of the Luxembourg Commercial Code may seem confusing when read literally and in isolation as to whether the period commences from the date of cessation of payments (cessation des paiements) alone, or the date of both the cessation of payments (cessation des paiements) and loss of creditworthiness (ébranlement du crédit) (i.e., the cumulative criteria for bankruptcy).
The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany is significantly affecting commercial landlords and tenants. The German legislator has taken various measures to mitigate the consequences of officially ordered business closures during lockdown and other pandemic-related adverse effects.
As published in the Business Post, March 14th.
Corporate partners Eoin Brereton and Bernard McEvoy discuss their experience in advising clients though crises including the ongoing pandemic in yesterday’s Business Post report on corporate restructuring and rebuilding corporate performance.
As of Q1 2021, vaccines have started to reduce hospitalisations in numerous countries, but global variations in vaccine manufacturing, distribution, procurement and adoption ensure that 2021 will be a year of patchwork ‘new normals’ worldwide. New, more infectious and potentially more robust variants may render COVID-19 endemic, further fragmenting governments’ response. Despite the prominence of the pandemic, other issues (such as Brexit and data protection) have also been notable within searches.