Offshore Litigation Blog

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.

On 8 July 2025, New Horizon Health Limited (the Company), a Cayman company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), filed a petition to appoint provisional liquidators (PLs).

The rise of digital assets and cryptocurrency has transformed financial markets, but it has also raised novel legal and practical challenges, particularly in the context of corporate insolvency.

In a recent decision of In the matter of TROOPS Inc, the Grand Court declined to appoint joint provisional liquidators (JPLs) on an ex parte basis over TROOPS Inc. (the Company). The ruling provides a useful reminder of the Court’s “especially cautious” approach to pressing the “nuclear button” of appointing JPLs, especially when that appointment is sought on an ex parte without notice basis.

The Grand Court’s recent decision in Re Superb Summit International Group Ltd [2025] CIGC (FSD) 62 offers a legally straightforward, albeit unusual, illustration of how Cayman Islands restoration and winding-up procedures can be utilised to support foreign regulatory enforcement efforts, particularly where cross-border fraud is alleged and local recovery action is essential.

In Stevens v Hotel Portfolio II UK Ltd (HPII), a judgment handed down by the Supreme Court on 23 July 2025, Lord Briggs gave the leading judgment (with only Lord Burrows dissenting), providing a clear statement of the law on compensation for breach of constructive trust by a trustee and a dishonest assistant.

In the recent English case of Waypark Commercial Mortgage Ltd v Vanguard Number 1 Ltd (In Liquidation), the Court had to consider whether the sale of property by a secured creditor of a company in liquidation was impacted by the automatic stay imposed by section 130(2) of the English Insolvency Act, 1986.