Regional news: Switzerland

New Swiss insolvency rules and lenders’ rights pre-insolvency

Featured in Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review 2023

24 March 2023

Legal action threatened as bondholders lose US$17bn in Credit Suisse takeover

Lawyers and investors tell GRR the takeover of troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse by UBS could lead to the end of the market for Additional Tier 1 bank debt, with bondholders set to lose US$17 billion through the deal announced this weekend.

20 March 2023

COMI: Court of Appeal finds governing law of contracts does not displace place of registration presumption

An oil trader has failed to persuade an English court that a Maltese-registered oil company’s hard-to-determine centre of main interests is in England – the country whose law governed the pair’s contracts – in the latest UK decision to interpret the European Insolvency Regulation.

31 October 2022

Nord Stream 2 pipeline wins moratorium extension until January

The Swiss parent company of ill-fated offshore natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has successfully obtained an extension of bankruptcy protection after sanctions imposed on Russia withered hopes the pipeline would secure the approval needed to operate.

12 September 2022

Swiss court weighs in on the distribution of liquidation surplus for dissolved entities

Switzerland’s highest court has ruled that where a company is liquidated due to organisational defects, the court-appointed cantonal bankruptcy office overseeing its liquidation must return surplus assets to either a debtor or a deposit and consignment fund.

24 March 2022

Kuwait social security institution secures FTI appointment over Adamas entity

A Kuwaiti public institution has persuaded a Cayman court not to appoint Deloitte partners as liquidators of a Hong Kong-based fund, and to instead appoint members of FTI Consulting who are already investigating some of its affiliates.

27 August 2021

“Persistent failure”: Paul Weiss report shows how Credit Suisse overlooked Archegos risks

Credit Suisse exercised a “persistent failure” to manage and remediate risks associated with Archegos Capital before its eventual collapse, according to an independent investigation conducted by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.

02 August 2021

Gazprombank challenges DTEK’s English schemes

The Swiss branch of Russia’s Gazprombank has told an English court that one of Ukrainian coal miner DTEK’s English schemes does not have a “real prospect” of being recognised in key foreign jurisdictions following Brexit.

13 May 2021

Maltese oil company’s ex-directors face English injunction application

The English liquidators of a Malta-registered oil company have asked a London court to stop two former directors from purporting to act on its behalf in Swiss proceedings - but they may face questions over the court’s jurisdiction.

07 May 2021

Former parent’s Chapter 11 plan approved for spun-off group

A Switzerland-headquartered automotive parts supplier that entered Chapter 11 in the midst of hostile litigation over asbestos liabilities inherited from its former US parent will now be restructured through a consensual plan designed by that parent, in a case described as “a great example of what Chapter 11 can accomplish, even for a company with its centre of gravity outside of the US”.

23 April 2021

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