This inBrief examines the latest amendments to the Bankruptcy Law (Federal Decree Law No. 9 of 2016, as amended) introduced under Federal Decree Law No. 35 of 2021 (the New Law) and their impact on the personal liability of the board of directors and managers of bankrupt companies. The New Law came into effect on 1 November 2021.
Introduction of the Bankruptcy Law was a major step forward and was influenced by features of a number of insolvency law regimes in other jurisdictions, as well as international insolvency law trends. On 24 October 2020, the UAE Cabinet announced its decision to amend Federal Law No. 9 of 2016 (the “Bankruptcy Law”) by adding certain provisions covering emergency situations, including pandemics and natural disasters as businesses around the world are facing new and acute challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Insolvency or Bankruptcy law for individuals has recently received quite a lot of attention from foreign expatriates living in UAE. The Cabinet of UAE has lately sanctioned a federal law to explicitly govern the cases of bankrupt individuals within the country. The law has been issued to safeguard the business interest of UAE residents, enhancing conditions of insolvent individuals and to ensure healthy competition among businesses.
The financial landscape in the Middle East has drastically changed since the economic downturn in 2008. Even though the region was not as badly impacted as rest of the world, the companies operating in the Middle East have had a rude awakening in terms of their financial viability. These companies have seen significant financial strain and tightening of liquidity in the market, prompting them to reconsider the way in which they do business. Financing has not been as readily available and has come with a lot more scrutiny than in the pre-downturn era.
The slowdown in the UAE economy has resulted in a corresponding slowdown in loan growth for the UAE banks and some debt delinquencies, especially in the SME market, and that has lead in some cases to a drop in bank profits as a result of increased bad debt provisions. While we understand that contractors who were the first to be affected have largely already made arrangements, that still leaves many bank customers who are feeling the stress of making scheduled loan repayments when their own profitability and cashflows are coming under pressure.
OW Bunker, one of the world’s major bunker suppliers and traders, and one of the largest companies in Denmark in terms of revenue, has filed for in-court restructuring for major parts of its business.
The subsidiaries involved face insolvency following the uncovering a $125m fraud in Singapore and a $150m risk management loss.
Watson Farley & Williams has developed the Global Aviation Restructuring Index (“GARI“), an online tool providing a comparative index of 50 restructuring processes in 25+ key aviation jurisdictions. GARI also assigns ‘debtor and creditor friendliness’ scores to each restructuring procedure, allowing for easy comparison across different procedures in the same or multiple jurisdictions. Please to access GARI.
In Brief:
Directors have potential liability in cases of bankruptcy.
Directors must be aware of their statutory obligations. For example, directors are obliged to:
- call for a general meeting if losses exceed half the share capital;
- keep proper books and records; and
- avoid wrongful trading.
Background
The new Bankruptcy Law (Federal Law Number 9 of 2016) is seen as a strategically improved law in comparison with previous insolvency laws. Having said that the Bankruptcy Law so far covers the following:
i. Permits organizations in money related issues and provides the chance to rearrange their issues so as to stay suitable;
ii. Companies failing to stay financially viable, offers them a chance to seek liquidation;
The GCC Quarterly Review briefly summarises a selection of the major developments in the laws of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) in the third quarter of 2018, with links to further reading, where available.