Since 1 January 2021, the European Insolvency Regulation and the Brussels I Recast Regulation no longer apply to the United Kingdom. In addition, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement does not provide any specific recognition or enforcement mechanism in relation to cross-border insolvency and restructuring proceedings following Brexit. The question thus arises if and under which conditions Belgian courts will continue to recognise UK schemes of arrangement and restructuring plans post Brexit.
In this week’s update: Funds in a holding company’s bank account belonged to a subsidiary and could be used to pay the costs of a subsidiary’s acquisition, the FCA publishes a series of Q&A on the cessation of LIBOR and the Government publishes a roadmap towards greening finance and sustainable investing.
22 October 2021 sees the return of winding-up petitions without heavy restrictions. It marks the first day in 18 months that a creditor could present a winding-up petition without having to consider the financial implications of Covid-19 on the company.
Watson Farley & Williams has developed the Global Aviation Restructuring Index (“GARI“), an online tool providing a comparative index of 50 restructuring processes in 25+ key aviation jurisdictions. GARI also assigns ‘debtor and creditor friendliness’ scores to each restructuring procedure, allowing for easy comparison across different procedures in the same or multiple jurisdictions. Please to access GARI.
In recent weeks, headlines around the UK have declared a crisis in the gas and energy sector: prices rising, suppliers collapsing, and customers – and industry professionals – wondering what has gone wrong.
A bill currently making its way through parliament is intended to enable increased scrutiny of the actions of directors of dissolved companies – and discourage the abuse of the voluntary strike-off procedure as an ‘alternative’ to insolvency proceedings. The measures relating to dissolved companies in the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill (the “Bill”) have been contemplated for some time, originally raised in the government’s consultation on insolvency and corporate governance in 2018 (the “2018 Consultation”).
The High Court has dismissed a challenge to Caffe Nero's company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in Young v Nero Holdings Limited. The Applicant in the proceedings, Mr Young, was a landlord of premises let to the First Respondent, Nero Holdings Limited (the Company) and challenged the Company's CVA under s 6(1)(a) and (b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act).
A recent High Court judgment has provided some clarity on issues arising from the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (“the Regulations 2020”). Partner Alex Jay and Senior Paralegal Aarti Chadda examine the judgment and its interpretation of the Regulations 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic posed a significant challenge to the financial health of businesses across the UK. A sector additionally at the mercy of the markets following the easing of lockdown restrictions is the energy industry, with the wholesale price of natural gas (measured on a pence per therm basis) having risen dramatically from around 50p/therm in January 2021 to over 200p/therm during the first few weeks of October 2021.
UK REIT Horizon Scanner Q4 2021
UK REIT Horizon Scanner Q4 2021
Key Issues
Key issues coming up for UK Main Market REITs in corporate, financial regulatory, planning, real estate, securities law and regulation and tax1 in England (including retained EU law2).
Issue/status/timing: New developments since our March 2021 edition are shown in green text. Impact: urgency/impact rating for REITs admitted to London Stock Exchange Main Market (including the Specialist Fund Segment3)