HHJ Purle had to consider an application for directions by liquidators of WGL, a company which was involved in a construction project for the School under a JCT Intermediate Building Contract (with Contractor’s Design) 2005 as amended. A dispute had arisen as to who owed money to whom, and the court was asked to decide the correct forum for resolving that dispute. According to the liquidators, around £615k was due to WGL, and according to the School, £270k was due to them.

The Insolvency Service has published a call for evidence on collective redundancy consultation for employers facing insolvency. It is seeking evidence on issues including the role of directors and insolvency practitioners and the factors which inhibit effective consultation. The closing date for submissions is 12 June 2015.

Double First: A Ukrainian group of companies breaks ground — first by changing the governing law of its high yield bonds from US to English law and then by being the first Ukrainian-based group to restructure via an English law scheme of arrangement The Debate: Chapter 11 vs Scheme of Arrangement The restructuring market has for some time been engaged in a spirited debate about the appropriate forum in which to restructure US law governed high yield (HY) bonds issued by European and American corporates.

Introduction

Companies are habitually used as part of a corruption scheme. Such companies often have only a single director, or a small number of directors, and are beneficially owned by the wrong-doers.

Insolvency powers can be effective tools to obtain compensation for victims of fraud or corruption, in the right circumstances.

A state could, for example, apply to Court for a liquidator to be appointed over a company used for corruption.

Overview

This article considers the state of the care homes industry, certain issues that arise when dealing with the imminent insolvency of care homes and initial considerations about what to take into account when determining sales strategy.

General concerns

On 29 April 2015 The Insolvency Service of the UK Government published updated insolvency statistics which include a breakdown of insolvencies that occurred in 2014 across various industry sectors including the construction industry.  There are separate tables of statistics for England and Wales and for Scotland.

On 26 March 2015, the Deregulation Bill and the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill received Royal Assent.  These Acts make a number of important changes to the law affecting directors, insolvency law and regulation. 

The changes affect (among other things) directors’ liabilities, the powers of administrators and the rights of creditors. While some changes are relevant to all those advising companies and directors, others are of interest principally to insolvency officeholders.

The trustees of the Olympic Airlines SA Pension and Life Assurance Scheme -v- Olympic Airlines SA

On 29 April 2015, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in relation to the trustees’ appeal. The unanimous decision was in favour of Olympic Airlines SA (the respondent). The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal that the High Court was wrong and confirmed that in order for there to be an ‘establishment’ there must be some business dealings with third parties. The trustees’ appeal was therefore dismissed.

Key Point

A distressed debt purchaser may be able to rely on misrepresentations made by the borrower to the original lender in published documents to recover loss.

The Facts

An Irish investment company ("Taberna") claimed damages for misrepresentations made by or on behalf of a large Danish bank ("Roskilde"), in investor presentation documents and annual results, which induced Taberna to enter into a secondary market purchase of subordinated notes originally issued by Roskilde.

The Decision

Key Points

• A company in liquidation will not be stopped, on the basis that it was a party to wrongdoing complained of, from bringing claims against directors and other parties for wrongdoing, where the company can be said to be a victim of the wrongdoing.
• Section 213 Insolvency Act 1986 (fraudulent trading) has extraterritorial effect.

The Facts