Until recently the oil and gas sector has not been on the restructuring communities radar. However, last year global oil prices hit an all-time low, which led to a record number of insolvencies in the industry. Consequently in conjunction with Lexis Nexis we have produced the Guide to insolvency in the UK oil and gas industry.

The statistics show that over 10,000 English limited companies operate in Germany. The company is registered in the Companies Register in the UK, but has a branch active in Germany, which is registered in German Company registries. On 10 December 2015 the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) decided on the question whether the liability of the director of English registered Kornhaas Montage und Dienstleistung Ltd (‘KMD’), which was subjected to German insolvency proceedings, should be determined by English law or by German law.

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”).

On 1 October 2015 the Insolvency (Protection of Essential Supplies) Order 2015 (“PESO”) will come into force. PESO aims to strengthen the statutory protection provided to insolvent companies and insolvency practitioners who need to utilise ‘essential supplies’ to continue to trade.

Essential Supplies

The European Court of Justice has today given its decision in the “Woolworths case” on the duty to consult collectively under the Collective Redundancies Directive, in particular defining the meaning of “establishment” for the purposes of determining when that duty is triggered.

Key Points 

• Phones 4U went into administration in September 2014.
• Technology companies in the US have also faced a difficult market.
• Phones 4U’s complicated financing structure contributed to its downfall, as did its reliance on one or two key suppliers.
• The Protection of Essential Supplies Order will have considerable ramifications for tech suppliers when it comes into force.

PHONES 4U COLLAPSE: PART 1

The Government has recently published a discussion paper, ‘Transparency & Trust: Enhancing the transparency of UK company ownership and increasing trust in UK business’, inviting feed-back on a number of proposals concerning the transparency of company ownership and control, enforcement of directors’ duties and compensation of creditors.  Among other things, the Government proposes to:  

Pre-packs continue to occupy centre stage, and administrators might be forgiven for feeling somewhat under the spotlight.

Re Powerhouse Limited: Prudential Assurance Company Limited v PRG Powerhouse Limited [2007] EWHC 1002 Ch Guarantees are widely used in commercial transactions to provide assurance to creditors that debts or other obligations owed to them are discharged fully in the event the principal debtor fails to perform. This assurance was shaken by the steps taken in early 2006 by PRG Powerhouse Limited (Powerhouse) to enter into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that contained proposals to release certain parent company guarantees given to landlords of premises being vacated by Powerhouse.

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.