By Stephen Briscoe Our previous posts have focused on the proposed changes to Hong Kong’s insolvency regime which are scheduled to come before LegCo in the next few months. This post is going to look at the “darker side”, (no, not Kowloon) to use the Star Wars metaphor; i.e. what is missing from the proposals;…
Continue ReadingDraft Changes to HK’s Insolvency Regime – Part V
The 5th article in our series on proposed changes to Hong Kong’s insolvency regime. By Stephen Briscoe Floating Charges At present, if a floating charge is created within 12 months of the commencement of the liquidation it is deemed to be invalid except to the extent of any new money advanced at the time of…
Continue ReadingLiquidators & Committees of Inspection
By Stephen Briscoe Conduct of the Winding Up Committee Of Inspection As part of the proposed changes, the Administration has made a number of sensible suggestions that are likely to improve the interaction between liquidators and Committees Of Inspection. For the sake of clarity, the new proposals will provide for the minimum and maximum number…
Continue ReadingConstitutionality of Bankruptcy Discharge Provisions Challenged (update)
By Rosenna Mak Just a brief update on our article entitled “Constitutionality of Bankruptcy Discharge Provisions Challenged” published last month reporting that section 30A(10)(a) of the Bankruptcy Ordinance had been ruled to be unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal. Due the significance of that ruling, a stay of the execution of the judgement was granted,…
Continue ReadingWinding Up – Moving Colonial Legislation into the New Century
By Stephen Briscoe The existing provisions dealing with the winding-up of companies in Hong Kong are still largely based on the 1948 Companies Act from the UK. Of course, there have been changes over the years, but generally these haven’t been material and so we continue to use the legislation first enacted almost 70 years…
Continue ReadingNew Companies Ordinance Winding Up and Insolvency Conclusions Published
As most of you are aware, earlier this year the new Companies Ordinance came into force. At that time the parts of the old Companies Ordinance that had not been amended, effectively s.166 onwards, were renamed as The Companies (Winding-up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance – just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?? Following a period…
Continue ReadingBankruptcy – Adjustment of Priority of Creditors’ Costs
The question recently arose in Hong Kong whether a creditor, who has taken action prior to the start of a bankruptcy and whose actions have resulted in the preservation of assets for the general body of creditors, should be able to receive any priority in respect of the costs they have incurred. Strictly there is…
Continue ReadingHK’s New Companies Ordinance a Mouthful
Hong Kong’s new Companies Ordinance (Cap 622) comes into force 3 March 2014. The changes apply primarily to those sections of the Ordinance that deal with, for want of a better phrase, live companies. Those sections of the Ordinance that deal with dead and dying companies will remain unchanged until the current round of consultations…
Continue ReadingS.228A Liquidations – Take Care!
Recently, the Court was asked to consider the circumstances in which it was appropriate to use the s.228A procedure to place a company into liquidation. Given that liquidations started using this procedure are relatively infrequent, it is unusual to see the question of its use come before the court. The background was that as a…
Continue ReadingUpdating the Companies Ordinance
A Missed Opportunity Republished with permission. This article first appeared in INSOL World magazine Q4 2013 By: Stephen Briscoe and Nichole Chan, BWA Hong Kong’s efforts to modernize the city’s corporate insolvency laws have resurfaced almost two decades after the city government first launched a comprehensive review of the legislation in the mid-90s, but then…
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