Avoidance/clawback

Days after the director of a Jersey-based investment vehicle lost his bid to restrain a creditor from presenting a winding up petition in the English courts, a London judge has ordered a hearing to take place as early as next month.

27 September 2021

Preference claims are on the rise in many financial centres across the globe and many are linking this to the impact of the global pandemic. Stephen Alexander, a partner at Mourant Ozannes in Jersey, asks whether the impact of the pandemic may be a defence to such preference claims – and if so, how?

06 September 2021

After a multi-party mediation lasting four months, the world’s biggest satellite company Intelsat has submitted an amended Chapter 11 plan and disclosure statement before a Virginia bankruptcy court – but the group admits the plan is still at risk, including from litigation by disgruntled creditors.

25 August 2021

A bankrupt’s Hong Kong trustees can take steps to determine whether he has property interests in the UK, after an English judge partially granted a letter of request from their appointing court under Section 426 of the Insolvency Act: but broader requests for relief lifted from the Cross Border Insolvency Regulations will have to wait for "full argument" in November.

09 July 2021

Operational creditors of the Indian conglomerate Videocon have not had a haircut so much as a “total shave”, the NCLT in Mumbai has found, as it told the group to increase pay-outs to MSMEs but nevertheless approved a resolution plan that will see Vendata group entity Twin Star Technologies become Videocon’s new owner for next to “nothing”.

21 June 2021

An avoidance order handing shares in a Canadian businessman’s companies to his Cayman bankruptcy trustee has been overturned by a Cayman appeal court, but litigation against his wife is set to continue.

25 February 2021

Once foreign bankruptcy proceedings have been recognised, the English courts lack “small j jurisdiction” to continue a pre-recognition freezing injunction against the debtor, counsel to a bankrupt Russian businessman argued this week – ahead of a new recognition hearing in the Isle of Man.

19 February 2021

Brown Rudnick has reached a settlement in principle with the litigation trust of bankrupt Dutch petrochemicals group LyondellBasell, which accused the firm of malpractice in failing to claw back US$300 million from Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.

27 January 2021

Bankruptcy safe harbour rules can apply to transfers made by debtors according to a Delaware court that has departed from a New York ruling that debtor transfers are not protected from avoidance actions.

20 January 2021

A Luxembourg fund and a German insolvency administrator that are challenging the Galapagos group’s 2019 UK restructuring in the US and Europe, have laid out before an English court why they shouldn’t be joined in a claim for declaratory relief that the restructuring was valid.

18 December 2020