The High Court has ordered a liquidator's firm to pay a proportion of the costs incurred by successful defendants following judgment in proceedings commenced by a claimant company in liquidation.

Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. v National Power Corporation & Anor [2018] EWHC 487 (Comm) is a significant case on the calculation of Close-out Amount under the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement.  

Two important points of principle arise from this judgment, which will have general application to transactions governed by the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement:  

Issues will arise upon a UK exit in relation to restructuring tools such as schemes of arrangement and in relation to insolvency processes; there are also special EU insolvency rules for financial institutions which will be affected. Finally there are elements of EU financial services laws which impinge on insolvencies and remove uncertainties, such as settlement finality and financial collateral.

A speechby Sam Woods of the Bank of England (BoE) says a lot about its approach to Solvency II and leaves a lot more unsaid.

Woods said that he wanted to dispel two myths:

The Court of Appeal has struck out Quincecare duty and dishonest assistance claims brought by the liquidators of a company running a Ponzi scheme against a correspondent bank that operated various accounts for the company.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 received Royal Assent and is now in force.

A case study of what to look out for when a tenant or its guarantor is looking like it is heading for financial difficulties

As a prudent and prepared landlord, it's always sensible to assess what potential remedies you might have should a tenant (or its guarantor) become insolvent or enter into some form of insolvency procedure. In this bulletin, we look at a short hypothetical case study and identify some of the key issues that landlords will need to assess in such circumstances.

1. The case study scenario

Brent crude’s 18-month slide from above $110bbl to a January 2016 low of under $30bbl led to a number of high-profile North Sea upstream restructurings. This article considers what we can learn from recent cases and how they can inform the approach of companies, lenders, bondholders and restructuring professionals in future cases in the sector.

2017 will see major changes to the UK legal landscape, with Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union expected to be triggered by the end of March 2017 to begin the Brexit process. The legal implications of Brexit will be hugely significant; preparing for their impact will be a substantial challenge across every industry sector. Our Preview of 2017 outlines these implications, as well as identifying other trends and issues we expect to be on the legal agenda this year.

The Supreme Court has held that, in order to open secondary proceedings in England under EC Regulation 1346/2000 on Insolvency Proceedings, the company’s “establishment” within the jurisdiction must be a fixed place of business that is involved in a business activity that consists of dealings with third parties: The T