In late 2017 the UK Government spent £60 million of taxpayers' money repatriating over 110,000 Monarch Airlines passengers stranded overseas.

The Airline Insolvency Review was created to "consider both repatriation and refund protection to identify the market reforms necessary to ensure passengers are protected".

On 12 June 2019, after a tense meeting with landlords and creditors, the company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) proposed by the Arcadia Group Ltd (Arcadia) were approved by the requisite majority of creditors, allowing the group to restructure its balance sheet and stave off, at least for the time being, a liquidation or administration proceeding.

Arcadia's decline

UK taxpayers paid over £60 million to repatriate around 110,000 passengers stranded abroad following the failure of Monarch in October 2017. The UK Government commissioned the Airline Insolvency Review to assess the existing protections available to passengers in the event of a future airline insolvency and make recommendations to ensure taxpayers no longer foot the repatriation bill. The review has now published its final report. It remains to be seen which of the recommendations (if any) will be implemented but some of them have the potential for far reaching changes in the sector.

If you own a flat, it may be tempting to rent it out whilst you are on holiday or for longer, to earn some extra income. However, a recent court case held that renting a flat out on Airbnb breached the tenant’s lease.

Today the Government published draft provisions for inclusion in the Finance Bill which will amend the Insolvency Act 1986 and grant HMRC preferential status on insolvency. A status that was removed in 2003 but which will be re-instated (in part) from 6 April 2020.

Despite huge concern from the lending market, voiced in responses to the Government’s consultation on this measure, the only material change we can see is confirmation that preferential status will not apply to insolvency proceedings commenced before 6 April 2020.

Back in March, we highlighted the launch of a consultation following the UK government’s proposal to introduce a new “secondary preferential” status for HMRC. Further details of the proposal can be found here : HMRC launches consultation on new “secondary preferential” status.

Executive Summary 

The recent case of Dingley and others v Nisa Retail Ltd (Re MKG Convenience Ltd (in liquidation)) [2019] EWHC 1383 (Ch) demonstrates three interesting facets of section 127 of the Insolvency Act 1986:  

1 That it is still very difficult to avoid the implications of S127 in relation to any disposition, whether by payment from a bank account, transfer of assets or other transactions such as the issue of credit notes with a validation order;

2 that direct debts are not excluded in any way; and

Judgment of Kerr J. in Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council v Punj Lloyd Limited [2018] EWHC 3776

L’affaire Cambridge Analytica aura au moins permis de faire progresser le droit : un tribunal anglais estime que l’administrateur d’une société n’est pas, en règle, coresponsable de traitement avec la société dont il a la charge, et que la liquidation n’y change rien.

Cambridge Analytica ?

L’affaire Cambridge Analytica (autrement appelée affaire Facebook) fut, en 2018, un scandale mondial.

Asset-backed or net asset value (NAV) facilities as a feature of the fund finance landscape are not new, but their prevalence and uses have increased over the last five years in particular.