Last year saw the construction industry face significant challenges, insolvency levels were up with over 5,000 company failures and nearly 23,000 companies in distress by the last quarter.
Construction businesses in the North-East had the second highest sector insolvency rates, with an estimated 540 companies suffering from distress in the last quarter of 2022 – the highest of any sector.
This distress has now come to fruition with the recent insolvencies of two of the North East’s largest main contractors, Metnor Construction and Tolent Construction.
Introduction
Relief under ss 423-425 Insolvency Act 1986 is not limited to cases of insolvency, as the decision of David Edwards KC, sitting as a High Court judge in the Commercial Court, in Integral Petroleum SA v Petrogat FZE & Ors ([2023] EWHC 44 (Comm)) demonstrates.
BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA & Others [2022] UKSC 25
Factual Background
1. In December 2008 and May 2009, the directors of a UK limited company, known as Arjo Wiggins Appleton Limited (“AWA”) distributed dividends to its parent company and sole shareholder, the defendant in the claim, Sequana SA (“Sequana”). The dividend payment in May 2009 was just over £119m.
Following the important decision in Martlet Homes Ltd v Mulalley & Co Ltd [2022] (see our summary here), LDC (Portfolio One) Ltd v George Downing Construction
This half-yearly update summarises significant insurance coverage cases in the English courts in the second half of 2022 concerning Covid-19 business interruption insurance, jurisdiction and rights against insurers of insolvent companies.
Significant Insurance Coverage Cases in H2 2022
Covid-19 BI Cases:
Cryptocurrency is a hot topic in the legal industry and one with which the legal world is really just starting to grapple. This is ever more prevalent with a number of recent high-profile crypto insolvencies including Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network and FTX.
In our latest report, Partners Alastair Massey and Phil Reynolds examine the retail landscape
Over one in five (22%) retail businesses in the UK aren’t confident of trading through to the end of 2023, according to new research published in our retail report.
Dispute Resolution analysis: When the owners and controllers of a company refused to identify the recipient of payments made out of the company during the course of arbitration proceedings, their defence to a claim under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 was struck out and judgment was entered against them.
Integral Petroleum SA v Pretrogat FZE and ors [2023] EWHC 44 (Comm)
What are the practical implications of this case?
Following the sanctioning of the Good Box restructuring plan (RP) it seems the answer is yes. This might sound surprising to those familiar with schemes of arrangement, because that outcome is at odds with the long-standing decision in Re Savoy Hotels.
For those less familiar with schemes and scheme case law, the court declined to sanction the Savoy scheme because the company did not approve it, consequently the judge found that the court had no jurisdiction to sanction it.