The High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Court of First Instance, has handed down its judgment on the question of whether it could provide assistance in relation to insolvency proceedings currently underway in the English High Court in London. Such proceedings were in the form of an English law-governed administration concerning a mining company, African Minerals Limited. In a decision handed down on 16 April 2015 which serves to illustrate the absence in Hong Kong of any statutory moratorium available to shield a troubled company from its creditors, the Hong Kong Court held that it does not have the
power at common law to grant an order in aid of an English administration which would have the effect of restraining the sale of charged assets. The absence of any equivalent statutory, common law or equitable power in Hong Kong led the Honorable Mr Justice Harris to arrive at the conclusion that he could not grant an order restraining the enforcement of a secured creditors’ rights pursuant to a letter of request that had been received from the English High Court.
Read more
Location