The collapse of fashion retailer Missguided has prompted official complaints to the Insolvency Service from suppliers who have alleged that the online brand continued trading and ordering new supply despite the prospect of insolvency. Alex Jay spoke to the Guardian and Yahoo! Finance about what the retailer going into administration could mean for suppliers, and the potential for legal action.

In 1907, Robert Baden-Powell, an English soldier, devised the Scout motto: Be Prepared. Upon hearing the Scout motto, someone asked Baden-Powell the inevitable follow-up question.

“Prepared for what?”

“Why, for any old thing,” he replied.

In Scouting for Boys (published in 1908), Baden-Powell wrote that to ‘Be Prepared’ means “you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.” More than a century later, preparedness is still a cornerstone of Scouting.

Introduction

“He’s an intelligent and incisive practitioner” “A safe pair of hands for complex matters”

Questions & Answers

The challenges faced by the construction industry are continuing to grow and insiders wonder when the storm is going to hit. For some, like Probuild, it already has. Rising inflation and the increasing cost of debt, labour shortages, supply chain delays and escalating cost of freight and materials are putting the industry under enormous pressure. Simultaneously Governments have invested heavily in building and construction to maintain growth in the economy.

Ruairi Rynn and Leanne Ennis, William Fry

This is an extract from the 2022 edition of GRR's Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.

In summary

Property claims, especially lien claims, are common in the current environment of supply chain disruption and delay. Most contractual, statutory and common law lien claims, including where the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) is involved, will turn on timing, scope and quantum arguments. In this article, we outline the usual levers in a lien dispute from the debtor and creditor perspectives and make some suggestions for getting to a commercial resolution.

The recent company insolvency statistics for Q1 2022 show the number of company insolvencies is continuing to increase. The figures show creditors’ voluntary liquidations as being the most common procedure followed by compulsory liquidations – the number of which is more than twice as high as in the previous quarter, although still below pre-pandemic levels.

Military aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine has significantly influenced operation of various businesses in Ukraine. Some of them are put on hold because of danger for employees and disruption of supply chains; some factories are physically damaged and cannot continue their production in full or in part. As a result, a lot of Ukrainian enterprises may fail to fulfill their contractual obligations, including repayment of debts to national and foreign financial institutions.

Rising distress? 2022 in statistics31 December 2022

Court exercises discretion to grant examination orders The Court of Appeal affirmed the High Court’s exercise of its discretion to grant orders that a company director be examined in Court notwithstanding that director was involved (as defendant in one instance and as the director of a defendant company in the other) in separate legal proceedings that have been commenced by the liquidator.