We are all seeing challenging times ahead. The war in Ukraine rages on. The surge in the cost of energy and goods and the supply and trade disruptions look set to continue for some time as the geo political picture plays out and countries look to protect themselves to weather this storm. The World Bank Group's Global Economic Prospects report issued in June 2022 forecasts a "sizeable downgrade to the outlook" with global growth expected to slow from 5.7 percent in 2021 to 2.9 percent this year.
Rising costs of goods and energy and the resulting slump in consumer demand will inevitably have a damaging effect on businesses and their counterparts whether they are regionally or globally focussed. Governments are having to continue to look at ways they can ease business strain and encourage investment which has in many jurisdictions led to changes to insolvency laws in recent years. We continue to believe that being prepared by keeping up to date with all the options open to companies is key.
In this issue, our colleagues in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US examine some recent decisions that question some of our well-trodden rules and conventions on the use of restructuring and foreign recognition processes to write off debt and on aircraft lessors' rights to their assets under the Cape Town Convention following the Australian High Court's decision in Virgin Australia. In addition, we look at the possible revival of pre-packs in the Netherlands, the EU recognition of UK restructuring plans and schemes of arrangement following Brexit and finally, we take a look at the UNCITRAL Model Law on cross border insolvency 25 years on from its introduction.
We hope you find these articles useful.
Howard Seife
Global Head
Bankruptcy, Financial Restructuring and Insolvency
Sarah Coucher
Global FRI Strategic Initiative
Director
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Publication
As previously observed, conflicts occasionally arise between mortgagees and charterers where a mortgagee wishes to take prompt action to enforce its rights, but the charterer wishes such enforcement action to be deferred until the end of the charter.
Publication
For some time now, the European Commission (EC) and national competition authorities (NCAs) have been striving to catch so-called “killer acquisitions” under their merger control rules to thereby close a perceived enforcement gap.
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