Lords ruling aids foreign liquidators
English assets of failed companies may be sent overseas after Law Lords call for more co-operation with other jurisdictions
The Law Lords have paved the way for foreign liquidators to seize English
assets in cross-border insolvency disputes.
Britain’s highest court put its weight behind the notion that English courts
should co-operate with other jurisdictions ‘as much as possible’ so the holdings
of bankrupt companies based abroad are given back to creditors under an umbrella
system.
The House of Lords made the watershed decision in response to a liquidation
case involving Australian company HIH Insurance.
The company collapsed in 2001, with HIH holding reinsurance contracts written
out of London. Law Lords have now said that these assets shpuld be remitted to
Australia for distribution by liquidators under Australian insolvency law.
‘The ruling may shift the starting point for how UK courts consider
international insolvency proceedings,’ Radford Goodman, a lawyer at
Norton
Rose told the FT.
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