Ashfords successfully acted for the Joint Trustees in Bankruptcy of Vincent Mascarenhas (deceased) in their application to discharge Freezing Orders, an Interim Charging Order and an Interim Third Party Debt Order obtained by creditors of the late Bankrupt in 2014. The Joint Trustees were not a party to the original proceedings but had standing to make the applications.

It’s been reported that the board of directors of AIM-listed Patisserie Holdings plc, which owns the Patisserie Valerie chain of cafés, was not aware for almost a month that HMRC had filed a petition at the High Court of England and Wales to wind up its main trading subsidiary, Stonebeach Limited.

A recent High Court case (Fairhold Securitisation Limited v Clifden IOM No 1 Ltd) has affirmed that in debt issuances involving a trustee, noteholders have only limited rights to take direct enforcement action. The case confirmed that:

Paul Muscutt, London restructuring partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, talks to Andrew Tate, former R3 President, Chair of R3’s Policy Group and Partner at accountancy firm Kreston Reeves LLP, about conflicts of interest in the restructuring and insolvency profession*.

The UK's corporate insolvency and restructuring landscape will be changing dramatically, following the Government's announcement on 26 August 2018.

The Government proposes to introduce a wide range of reforms including: 

House of Fraser, the struggling UK department store has gone into administration but is to be acquired by billionaire Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports Direct. There are regulatory difficulties with his acquisition of the Dundrum branch at the moment, but it is anticipated that the entire group including Dundrum will be fully operational in good time to capitalise on the Christmas market.

However, what does this mean for customers with unused gift cards?

We summarise the key legislative changes planned by government relating to insolvency and corporate governance and focus on what they mean for investors, including the private equity community

Introduction

A statutory waste removal obligation incurred by a company before it entered liquidation was held to be dischargeable as an expense of the liquidation (Re Doonin Plant Limited [2018] ScotCS CSOH 89).

The government has published its response to the consultation on insolvency and corporate governance. The document sets out its proposed next steps; in some areas the government will legislate but in other areas further consultation will be needed.

The proposed insolvency reforms include

• the introduction of a new moratorium to give ultimately viable financially distressed companies a period of time when creditors (including secured creditors) cannot take action against the company, allowing it to make preparations to restructure or seek new investment;