S216(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986 restricts former directors of insolvent companies from being involved with companies or businesses using a prohibited name for five years following an insolvent liquidation. S216(3) provides that, unless leave is granted by the court or one of the statutory exceptions applies, a person who was a director of a … Continue Reading
On remand from the Fifth Circuit, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the “Court”) held in the Serta Simmons Bedding (“Serta”) liability management exercise (“LME”)[1] dispute that a credit agreement’s pro-rata sharing provision applied to noncash payments, in this case, a debt-for-debt exchange, and not solely to cash payments. The Serta Court … Continue Reading
With the anticipated appeal in Novalpina having been heard at the end of last month, practitioners will be watching closely to see what the courts have in store for solvent liquidations. In particular, there remains considerable interest in whether the first instance findings concerning the requirement to pay all debts, together with statutory interest, within … Continue Reading
In Cross Transport Ltd (In Administration) [2026] EWHC 1636 (Ch) the Court was asked to consider the “super priority” status afford to protected moratorium debts in the context of a subsequent administration. The Insolvency Act 1986 requires a company, entering a moratorium, to pay certain debts that are incurred during the moratorium period (“moratorium debts”), … Continue Reading
In NOAL SCSp v Novalpina Capital LLP [2025], the court took a strict view of the statutory requirement that companies entering a member’s voluntary liquidation (MVL) must be able to pay all their debts (including contingent or disputed ones) within 12 months. That mattered because, in practice, some insolvency professionals understood the legislation to mean … Continue Reading
B.E. Capital Management Fund LP v. Fund.com Inc., C.A. No. 12843‑JTL (Del. Ch. Apr. 10, 2026) INTRODUCTION Can a successor receiver let a past receiver, removed for being a “faithless fiduciary,” bid to buy company assets at auction? In B.E. Capital Management Fund LP v. Fund.com Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery (the “Court”) highlighted … Continue Reading
The Renters Rights Act 2025 (Act), which came into force on 1 May 2026 aims to give private tenants greater security and protection from eviction, in many respects aligning the position with business tenants who are in occupation under a protected business tenancy. For insolvency practitioners (IPs) appointed as administrators or liquidators of a business … Continue Reading
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has issued a significant ruling in the cross‑border insolvency practice that reaffirms U.S. recognition of foreign restructuring plans containing third-party releases. Crédito Real S.A.B. DE C.V., SOFOM, E.N.R. (“Crédito Real”) was one of Mexico’s largest non-banking financial lending institutions. In 2021, Crédito Real experienced a liquidity … Continue Reading
On July 18, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, otherwise known as the GENIUS Act. The purpose of the GENIUS Act is to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. However, the GENIUS Act also makes several important changes to the … Continue Reading
Article 7(m) of the EU Insolvency Regulation (2015/848) provides that the law of the EU Member State in which insolvency proceedings have been commenced in respect of a company determines whether certain acts carried out prior to the commencement of insolvency proceedings, (such as payments made by the company), are void, voidable or unenforceable and … Continue Reading
S423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) provides a route for office holders to challenge transactions where a person deliberately transfers assets at an undervalue to put them beyond the reach of creditors. The Supreme Court in El-Husseiny and another (Appellants) v Invest Bank PSC (Respondent) [2025] UKSC 4 recently confirmed what is meant … Continue Reading
You may have read our previous blog about the Outside Clinic Restructuring Plan (RP) which asked whether 5p was enough to cram down HMRC and thought, well surely if that’s not enough, 10p would work? The Enzen Restructuring Plans (RPs) that were sanctioned this week also sought to compromise HMRC’s secondary preferential debt proposing a … Continue Reading
Should a claim be struck out where the applicant has failed to comply with the procedural requirements relating to “hybrid” claims? In the recent case of Park Regis Birmingham LLP [2025] EWHC 139 (ch), the High Court held that it would be disproportionate to strike out the claim on that basis.… Continue Reading
For those in the mid-market who have watched developments in restructuring plans (RP) move from a potential rescue tool, to something prohibitively expensive, the OutsideClinic RP might be one to watch. Not least because the RP seeks to cram down HMRC. Following RPs proposed by Naysmyth and the Great Annual Savings Company (which were unsuccessful … Continue Reading
Our recently updated article considers how EU and German civil and regulatory law approach crypto assets with a particular focus on how those types of crypto assets are dealt with in an insolvency. In this article we explore the different types of crypto assets there are, the legal nature of them, how crypto assets are … Continue Reading
This article, that was recently published in INSOL, provides a comparison of directors’ duties between several European jurisdictions – England and Wales, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. It explores the role of directors and their general duties and obligations in a going concern scenario and examines how those duties might change … Continue Reading
Throughout his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump vowed that if re-elected, he would address unfair trade practices, rebalance trade relationships, and fund other economic proposals through new and expanded tariffs. With his return to the White House, the world is grappling with a complex web of international trade risks and potential opportunities in 2025. President … Continue Reading
The post-pandemic anxiety on the European markets was largely due to the anticipated wave of bankruptcies. High interest rates, surging energy prices and out-of-control inflation took their toll on many European businesses. Although the doomsday scenario did not come to pass, we have been seeing increasingly more restructurings and insolvencies. The Polish market is no … Continue Reading
It is usual for administrators to ask for an administration to be extended by 12 months – but we have seen the courts agree to longer periods. For example, certain of the Lehman group company administrations were extended by periods of four and six years – having previously been extended by eight. In the more … Continue Reading
Earlier this year ICC Judge Baister handed down judgment in the case of UKCloud Ltd, building on the decision in Avanti[1] by providing further analysis around the distinction between fixed and floating charges – following a dearth of caselaw on the point since Spectrum.[2] This blog pulls together some of the key messages and practical … Continue Reading
In the case of JDK Construction Limited the Court of Appeal had to consider whether an earlier decision by a High Court judge that liquidators had been validly appointed was correct. The answer to that question turned on whether the resolutions that the company had passed to place the company into voluntary liquidation were valid … Continue Reading
There is a tension between UK insolvency and pensions laws. Put simply, this is because insolvency laws look to protect all of the company’s creditors, but pension laws seek to protect the interests of the pension creditors alone. When new offences and criminal sanctions were introduced in 2021 enabling TPR to issue fines of up … Continue Reading
In my most recent blog post, I provided some tips for creditors who find themselves in the Subchapter V arena. This is somewhat of a follow-up to that one. There is a general consensus that Subchapter V has been successful for debtors in smaller cases. The American Bankruptcy Institute recently commented that Subchapter V bankruptcies … Continue Reading
As discussed in our prior blog entitled “New York’s Sovereign Debt Restructuring Proposals,”[1] three bills were introduced in the New York state legislature to overhaul the way sovereign debt restructurings are handled in New York. Those bills sought to implement a comprehensive mechanism for restructuring sovereign debt, limit recovery on certain sovereign debt claims, and … Continue Reading
