Where the law to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil, insolvency and criminal proceedings (COVInsAG) is concerned, the German Parliament has introduced rules regarding the suspension of a managing director’s obligation to file for insolvency. It has also issued important statements regarding the liability of managing directors and the legal position of new loans, especially shareholder loans.

In the event that the obligation to file for insolvency is suspended:

Im Zuge der „Corona-Krise“ benötigen viele betroffene Unternehmen dringend staatliche Unterstützung, um akute Liquiditätsengpässe zeitnah abwenden zu können und um ihre Eigenkapitalquote zu stärken. Der Bund hat dazu nun das Gesetz zur Errichtung eines Wirtschaftsstabilisierungsfonds (WStFG) erlassen. Das WStFG sieht die Errichtung eines Wirtschaftsstabilisierungsfonds (WSF) zur Stützung der Realwirtschaft vor (Ausführliche Informationen zum WSF wie bspw. zu Antragsberechtigungen, Voraussetzungen und Zuständigkeiten finden Sie u.a.

Bankruptcy and restructuring law in Poland is undergoing considerable modernisation, as demonstrated by the following:

Law No. 47/2010/QH12 on credit institutions has been amended pursuant to Law No. 17/2017/QH14 (“Amended Law”) passed by the National Assembly. The Amended Law came into effect on 15 January 2018.

The Amended Law provides grounds for special control by the State Bank of Vietnam (“SBV”) against underperforming credit institutions which:

• have failed to maintain liquidity requirements;

• have accumulated losses exceeding 50% of the charter capital and reserve funds as recorded in the latest audited financial statements;

Key points

• The Court of Appeal confirmed that there is a complete statutory code for the payment of interest.

• Statutory interest represents compensation for dividends paid after the administration, and does not depend on any right to interest under the underlying claim.

• Regard can be had, however, to the rate at which interest would have been paid to the creditor after the administration.

The facts

The court sanctioned one of two potential schemes of arrangement for Amigo Loans Ltd (Amigo) and approved a plan that provided for two possible outcomes.

Background

Amigo provided guarantor loans to customers with poor credit scores. Amigo owed customers and the Financial Ombudsman Service £375 million for customer complaints and was insolvent.

The UK High Court has excluded 'out of the money' creditors and shareholders from voting on Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited’s (Smile) restructuring plan because they did not have a genuine economic interest in the company.

Background

Liquidity issues within the construction industry have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with the high-profile collapse of major contractors in the region, the UAE has taken strides to improve upon its existing Bankruptcy Law (Law 9 of 2016) to ensure that it remains capable of facing the very modern challenges presented by the current climate. This includes the introduction of provisions which give debtors limited reprieve in circumstances of “Emergency Financial Crisis” under Law 9 of 2019 amending the Bankruptcy Law.

On 28 June 2021 the Dutch government initiated a public consultation procedure concerning a legislative proposal intended to make expedited liquidation of legal entities more transparent for creditors. To achieve this goal, the Minister has proposed that the management board of a legal entity should file a number of documents with the Trade Register within 10 days of liquidation and then notify their creditors that they have done so. The proposal also allows for the possibility of disqualifying a managing director who should fail to observe the new rules.

On 12 May 2021, in the first opposed cross-class cram down case, the English High Court sanctioned Virgin Active's restructuring plans, the first to bind landlords to lease compromises.

The decision

While the opposing landlords challenged the valuation evidence advanced by the companies, they did not advance evidence of their own. The court accepted the companies' evidence that: