Chul Man Kim, Ki Young Kim, Sun Kyoung Kim, Su Yeon Lee, Jin Seok Choi and Sy Nae Kim, Yulchon LLC
This is an extract from the 2021 edition of GRR's the Asia-Pacific Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
On 1 September 2016, the Korean Court issued orders commencing rehabilitation proceedings for Hanjin and staying proceedings against it and its assets (Korean Orders).
The purpose of the Korean proceeding is to rehabilitate the insolvent debtor company, Hanjin, by restructuring its debts. The debts are restructured according to a rehabilitation plan approved by the creditors and the Korean Court. The aim is to protect Hanjin while it trades out of its debt.
Readers will recall that on 23 September 2016 we posted an article about recognition under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (Model Law) of the Korean rehabilitation proceedings for Hanjin Shipping.
Shipping companies world-wide are suffering from depressed freight rates caused by years of weakening demand—particularly from China—as global trade has slowed. The latest casualty is one of the largest to date, South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping (Hanjin), the country's largest shipping firm and the world's seventh-biggest container carrier, which was placed into receivership by a South Korean court on Wednesday after its financiers ended financial support.
Admiralty proceedings against a vessel are necessarily territorial in nature. A debtor’s vessel may sail into a certain jurisdiction and be arrested and sold for the benefit of creditors who both have Admiralty in rem claims against the vessel and actively take the required steps in the Court proceeding concerned. Creditors not having rights of claim of that nature would miss out or only have a very low priority in respect of the proceeds of sale.
In a landmark judgment on 9 September 2016, the High Court of Singapore exercised its inherent jurisdiction to grant, on an ex parte basis, interim orders for the recognition of the Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd (Hanjin Shipping) Korean rehabilitation proceedings in Singapore.
On 1 September 2016, Hanjin Shipping Co Limited ('Hanjin') successfully applied for and obtained an order whereby it was placed under rehabilitation. Such an order was obtained within 24 hours of the company making application to the Korean courts, without notice or input from other interested parties, most notably Hanjin's creditors.
Seoul Bankruptcy Court will be established and replace the Bankruptcy Division of the Seoul Central District Court as of March 1, 2017.
The Seoul Bankruptcy Court will be the first and the only bankruptcy court in Korea until other bankruptcy courts are established in areas other than Seoul. Until then, local district courts will continue to oversee bankruptcy cases in areas other than Seoul.
On March 22, 2018, Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (“Sungdong”), a mid-sized shipyard in South Korea, filed a petition to commence a “rehabilitation proceeding” with the Changwon District Court. A rehabilitation proceeding is a court-administered reorganization proceeding comparable to a Chapter 11 proceeding in the United States. In a rehabilitation proceeding, the debtor continues to do business while restructuring its pre-existing debt.
The Changwon District Court in South Korea has this afternoon (23 March 2018) issued a comprehensive prohibition order (CPO) following the application of Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd (Sungdong) to enter Chapter 11 Rehabilitation filed earlier this month.
The effect of the CPO is to provisionally prohibit all creditors of the yard from taking legal action in South Korea to secure and enforce their claims by attachment, arrest or foreclosing of their security interests.