The new Slovakian preventive restructuring framework aims to provide companies with a viable toolkit to deal with financial distress at an early stage and to counter the fact that the majority of Slovak companies enter an insolvency process having been insolvent for more than a year.

Main characteristics

The English High Court has rejected a creditor's application to bring a moratorium to an end following the monitors' decision not to terminate the moratorium.

Background

A monitor must terminate the moratorium if they 'think' that the company is unable to pay any pre-moratorium debts for which the company does not have a 'payment holiday'. Surprisingly, debts arising under an agreement involving 'financial services' are excluded from the payment holiday.

Decision

On 29 October 2021, the UK Insolvency Service published its insolvency statistics for Q3 2021. Notably, the number of company insolvencies was 17% higher than in Q2 2021 and 43% higher than in Q3 2020. This was driven by an increase in company voluntary liquidations (CVLs) to the highest quarterly level for 12 years.

Op 28 juni 2021 heeft het kabinet een wetsvoorstel in consultatie gebracht met als doel de turboliquidatie van rechtspersonen transparanter te maken voor schuldeisers. Om dat te bereiken, stelt de minister voor dat het bestuur van een rechtspersoon binnen tien werkdagen na de ontbinding een aantal documenten deponeert bij het Handelsregister en van de deponering mededeling doet aan de schuldeisers. Ook bevat het voorstel de mogelijkheid om, indien een bestuurder de nieuwe regels niet naleeft, een bestuursverbod op te leggen.

Re Zoom UK Distribution Ltd (in administration); Wessely and another (in their capacity as joint administrators of Zoom UK Distribution Ltd (in administration)) v Rubra and others

The UK courts' latest attempt to grapple with the effects of a defect in the way administrators are appointed was recently resolved in favour of the administrators.

From 1 December 2020 onwards, HMRC will be treated as a preferential creditor of companies for certain taxes including PAYE, VAT, employee NICs and Construction Industry Scheme deductions. In the event that a company enters administration or liquidation, HMRC's claim for these taxes will rank ahead of any floating charge holder.

This reflects recent changes made to the Finance Act 2020.

The impact on floating charge holders

The Supreme Court decision in Bresco made it clear that a company in liquidation does have the right to adjudicate its disputes under a construction contract. Any difficulties concerning potential repayment by an insolvent company to the paying party if the paying party later should overturn the adjudicator's decision should be taken into account at the summary judgment hearing to enforce an adjudicator's decision.

Now, with the case of John Doyle v. Erith Contractors, we have further guidance as to how the court will approach enforcement.

Facts

Centenary Homes Limited (C) was a property development company which acquired two blocks of flats: one in Enfield and the other in Bloomsbury. The Bank of Scotland (BOS) extended secured finance to C for the development of the two properties.

C defaulted on its repayment obligations in 2012 and fixed charge receivers were appointed in March, when the balance outstanding was approximately £4.4 million.

The receivers were able to sell the Enfield flats in July 2012, for £3,250,000.

Building on measures already introduced in the Coronavirus Act – such as the moratorium on lease termination for non-payment of rent until 30 June 2020 – the Government announced that further emergency measures will be introduced.

Statutory demands and winding up petitions issued to commercial tenants to be temporarily voided

The forthcoming Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill will include restrictions on the use of statutory demands and winding up petitions to recover sums owed by tenants.

Unternehmen, die aufgrund der Corona-Krise Liquiditätsprobleme entwickeln, sollen auf staatliche Finanzierungshilfen zurückgreifen können. Die Bundesregierung hat diesbezüglich ein Schutzschild beschlossen, der die Unternehmen mittels Kostensenkungen (durch arbeits-, steuer-, und sozialrechtliche Maßnahmen) sowie kurzfristiger Darlehen in der Krise stabilisieren soll. Weitere Maßnahmen werden derzeit zusätzlich auf Länderebene entwickelt.