Offshore Litigation Blog

In a recent decision of the BVI Court, a connected group company was ordered to repay US$125.9 million after a last-minute intra-group loan repayment was found to be an unfair preference.

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands recently delivered its judgment in In the Matter of New Ruipeng Pet Group Inc, concerning the continuation of the appointment of restructuring officers (ROs) over New Ruipeng Pet Group Inc (the Company).

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) has long occupied a pre-eminent position among the world's offshore jurisdictions for corporate formation.

For a creditor to place a dissolved BVI company into insolvent liquidation, the creditor must first restore the company. Good news to all creditors – AS PNB Banka (in liquidation) v Registrar of Corporate Affairs now confirms that the appointment of a registered agent is not required as a precondition to restoration where the creditor seeks restoration solely for the purpose of placing a dissolved company immediately into insolvent liquidation.

In THG Plc v Zedra Trust Company, the UK Supreme Court, by 4-1, overturned the Court of Appeal and held that no statutory limitation period applies to unfair prejudice petitions under section 994 of the Companies Act 2006 (the CA).

In a previous blog post, we discussed the first instance judgment in the Phoenix BVI litigation, where Justice Mangatal considered the formalities for becoming a shareholder under s49 of the BVI Business Companies Act, Revised Edition 2020 (BCA). That judgment has now been appealed, with an accompanying application for a stay of execution.

It’s a familiar dilemma: a debt remains unpaid under a contract and the creditor wishes to pursue payment of the debt.

In a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Bermuda (‘Court’), Harneys and the joint provisional liquidators (‘JPLs’) of a Bermuda company (the ‘Company’) successfully argued that the Court’s power to summon officers of a company in liquidation or provisional liquidation before it for a private examination and delivery up of books and records under the Companies Act, 1981 (‘Companies Act’) has extra-territorial effect.

In Cyprus, companies that are struck off the official companies register maintained by the Department of Intellectual Property and Registrar of Companies in Cyprus (the Register and the Registrar) can be restored, mainly, through two routes: (1) administrative restoration by the Registrar; or (2) Court-ordered restoration.

In 2017, Singapore incorporated the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (the ‘Model Law’) into its domestic legislation, providing a comprehensive and structured framework for the recognition and assistance of foreign corporate insolvency proceedings.

The Privy Council has just handed down judgment in Fang Ankong & Anor v Green Elite (in liquidation) which clearly restates how the Duomatic principle is to be applied and, in particular, the need for certainty, knowledge and an actual assent that can be objectively established.

In Hyalroute Communication Group Limited v Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) (Hyalroute), the Hong Kong Court dismissed an application by a Cayman Islands-incorporated company for anti-suit relief to restrain a creditor from filing a winding-up petition in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.