On 21 January, the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) announced that it would carry out a market study, supported by Ofwat, the UK water and sewerage regulator, looking at the market for treatment of organic waste. The study will look at whether the market is working effectively to deliver the best outcomes for customers. The OFT decided to launch this study after considering a proposal and request from Ofwat. The OFT will lead on the study and utilise its experience in conducting market studies and of the municipal, commercial and industrial organic waste sectors.

Restructuring & Insolvency
United Kingdom
Recovery and Resolution of Central Clearing Counterparties: AIMA’s Proposals

On 25 July 2014 and 17 September 2014 respectively, Justice Brereton of the Supreme Court of NSW delivered two related judgments in Re AAA Financial Intelligence Ltd (in liquidation) andRe AAA Financial Intelligence Ltd (in liquidation) (No 2). The decisions deal with the evergreen topic of Liquidator remuneration and expenses.

Importantly, in fixing the Liquidators' remuneration, Justice Brereton adopted a "value" focussed approach, and discussed the relevance of considering matters beyond simply time spent multiplied by fixed hourly rates. 

The PPF Ombudsman has rejected an appeal by a pension scheme member which was based on the premise that the PPF compensation cap contravened European law (in this case the Insolvency Directive). The Insolvency Directive requires member states to take "necessary measures" to ensure protection of members' occupational retirement benefits upon the insolvency of an employer. 

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the trustees of two occupational defined benefit (DB) schemes can use a particular mechanism, known as a Headway agreement, to maximise the amount of s.75 debt payable by the employers.

In the case of Sarjeant and others v Rigid Group Ltd, both schemes commenced winding up in 2000. No insolvency event had occurred before the winding up in either case. The applicable legislation at the relevant time required the s.75 debt to be calculated on the MFR basis.

On 7 January 2013, the Regulator published a report detailing its decision to give clearance to entities in the UK Coal Group to pursue a restructuring plan agreed on by UK Coal's shareholders in November 2012.

The Pensions Regulator (the "Regulator") has published a statement to help banking, insolvency and restructuring professionals understand its approach to its Financial Support Direction ("FSD") powers in insolvency situations.

In October 2009 the Greek airline, Olympic Airlines SA ("OA"), entered "special liquidation" in Greece after the European Commission ordered it to repay illegal state aid from the Greek Government. OA employed about 27 employees in the UK, who participated in an occupational pension scheme. In June 2010 OA's liquidator informed the scheme's trustees that the UK employees' employment would be terminated and that pension contributions would cease from July 2010.

In September 2010, the Determinations Panel of the Regulator (the "DP") issued financial support directions ("FSDs") against six companies in the Lehman Brothers Group, but determined that no FSDs would be issued against 38 other companies in the group. The trustees of the Lehman Brothers Pension Scheme appealed the decision not to issue FSDs against these 38 companies to the Upper Tribunal. However, the companies applied for the trustees' appeal to be struck out.

On 29 February 2012, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down its long-awaited judgment on client money issues in the context of the Lehman's Administration. The judgment has an important bearing on likely recoveries for both segregated and non-segregated clients, the further work to be conducted by the Administrators and timing of distributions.

Summary

The Supreme Court has found that: