On May 31, 2009, approximately 30 days after Chrysler Group LLC and affiliated debtors filed for bankruptcy relief, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York authorized the sale of substantially all of Chrysler’s assets to “New Chrysler” – an entity formed by Chrysler and Fiat Automobiles SpA and initially majority-owned by Chrysler’s Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) – free and clear of liens, claims and encumbrances under section 363 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the Fiat Transaction).

This Act received Royal Assent in July 2007 but no date for implementation has been published yet.

In addition to the provisions contained in this Act aimed at improving the working of the tribunals system and increasing judicial diversity, are several sections that will be of interest to financiers and insolvency professionals: 

As the country recovers from the shock outcome of last Thursday’s Referendum, the question which Restructuring professionals must now consider is “what does Brexit mean for me?”. The truth is that nobody really knows. The Referendum decision is not legally binding on the UK Government and the process of the UK leaving the EU will only start once the UK has served formal notice on the EU pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union. This will start a two year negotiation period to effect Brexit.

During contract negotiations parties usually agree what law and which courts will determine any disputes arising from that contract. This brings certainty for the parties. However that certainty can vanish if one party is a foreign registered company and becomes insolvent – the other party may suddenly become exposed to unexpected foreign insolvency law. At this point, the drafting of a jurisdiction clause can be worth millions.

This is the situation in the recent case of Global Maritime Investments Cyprus Limited v O.W. Supply & Trading A/S [2015] EWHC 2690 (Comm).

Promociones Habitat SA, the Spanish residential homebuilder, has completed a €1.45 billion restructuring which was the first refinancing of an existing composition agreement using Spain’s new company rescue laws.

In 2008 Promociones Habitat SA (Habitat)applied for voluntary bankruptcy with accumulated liabilities of 2,840 million euros. Two years later, in 2010, Mercantile Court no. 3 of Barcelona approved the composition agreement with more than 80% adhering to the proposal.

The past several years have not been kind to commodities exploration companies.  The price of gold dropped to $1,051/oz. in November 2015, a level that had not been seen since 2009.  Although the price of gold rebounded somewhat in January and February 2016 to just over $1,200/oz., the price has steadily decreased after peaking at $1,921/oz. in August 2011.  The price of silver has also decreased dramatically, with its price off 60% from the 2011 highs.  Copper has not escaped this trend, and was recently selling for just over half of its 2011 price.

Did Trump win again?  Yes, but this time it was not “The Donald” but was instead the casino-operator Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. (“Trump Entertainment”).

On 1 April 2015, responsibility for consumer credit in the UK transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) to the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). A consequence of this was to replace the OFT’s Consumer Credit Act licencing scheme with the FCA’s authorisation scheme under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”).

Further to the review of pre-pack administration sales (“pre-packs”) by Teresa Graham CBE last year (the findings of which were published in the “Graham Report” and discussed in one of our earlier blogs,Change in Sight for UK Pre-pack Administration Regulation), the key recommendations have now been implemented in order to improve fairness and transparency especially where a pre-pack sale occurs to a connected party.

In March 2014 the European Commission issued a Recommendation considering a new approach to business failure and insolvency, targeting efficient restructuring of viable enterprises in financial difficulty and a second chance for honest entrepreneurs.