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Season's Greetings from the Restructuring and Insolvency Faculty
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year |
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Click photo for more photos |
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RIF Cocktail
The Restructuring and Insolvency Faculty ("RIF") cocktail reception took place on the evening of 25 November 2008. Over a hundred RIF members met and mingled with fellow members and prominent guests from the government, judiciary and the restructuring and insolvency sector at the reception.
RIF Executive Committee ("RIFEC") chair, Mr. Johnson Kong, gave a brief account of the achievements and the plans of the RIF for the coming year and INSOL president, Mr. Bob Sanderson, spoke briefly on INSOL affairs and drew the winners of the lucky draw prizes.
The RIF would like to thank Jones Day for its sponsorship of this event. |
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| Consultations and Publications |
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Companies Ordinance Rewrite consultation
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The government has recently released consultation conclusions on the Companies Ordinance ("CO") Rewrite second consultation, conducted earlier this year, which covers proposals in relation to company names, corporate directors and the registration of charges.
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| (b) |
We look forward to work commencing during 2009 on the review of the insolvency provisions of the law under the CO Rewrite project. The RIFEC will be putting together a submission in due course and in the interim would welcome RIF members' views or comments on amendments that should be made to the CO. Please send these to Mary Lam, Assistant Director, Specialist Practices at < rif@hkicpa.org.hk > for the RIFEC Technical Sub-committee to consider.
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| Judiciary Issues Practice Direction 3.3 |
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Practice Direction 3.3 "Pilot Scheme for Voluntary Mediation in Petitions presented under sections 168A and 177(1)(f) of the Companies Ordinance, Cap.32", which came into effect on 1 October 2008, provides for a pilot scheme to operate from 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009 in respect of petitions presented under section 168A and petitions for winding up on the just and equitable ground under section 177(1)(f) of the CO, where there is no allegation of insolvency concerning the subject company and no allegation that the affairs of the company would require full investigation in the public interest.
A reference booklet containing information on mediation generally and on the resources available for mediation in Hong Kong is available from the Judiciary. |
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| Guidance on Claims Presentation and Resolution |
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| INSOL International has recently published a guidance booklet, entitled "Claims Presentation and Resolution in Insolvency Proceedings", which explores the methods by which claims are presented, defended against, and resolved in different insolvency systems. It examines the law and procedure for the presentation and allowance of creditor claims in fifteen jurisdictions. INSOL members should already have received a copy from INSOL. |
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| Technical Paper Examines and Compares Cross-Border Avoidance Provisions |
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| INSOL International has issued a technical paper titled "Avoidance Provisions in a Local and Cross-border Context: A Comparative Overview". The paper provides a comparison of the law that regulates transactions entered into prior to bankruptcy in a number of jurisdictions – England, the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and India. The author concludes that, despite the fact that the various jurisdictions considered in this paper are based on either the common law, the civil law, or a blend of these legal systems, the notion of avoidable transactions in the different jurisdictions shares certain core characteristics. |
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Members Share their Experience and Views
The Editorial Sub-committee would welcome more contributions from RIF members and their firms. Here are abridged versions of two articles contributed by RIF members. The full and original versions first appeared in Asian-Counsel magazine in September 2008.
Flying Too Low – Oasis and the Airline Industry the Mainland
In this article, Mr. Ian De Witt writes on the challenges that he experienced in the Oasis assignment.
The Hong Kong and the Credit Crunch
In this article, Mr. Robin Darton explains his views on how for insolvency professionals the current economic downturn is different from past recessions.
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INSOL Update |
INSOL Welcomes Your Suggestions
INSOL International will be holding a board meeting in January 2009. The INSOL president invites your suggestion of topics/matters that you wish the INSOL board to address at the meeting. Please send your suggestions, together with a brief explanation of the issues, also to Mary Lam at < rif@hkicpa.org.hk > on or before 6 January 2009.
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INSOL Shanghai
The INSOL annual regional conference, which took place in Shanghai on 14 – 16 September 2008, was a success in all respects. With 442 delegates, the Shanghai conference witnessed the largest number of delegates at an annual INSOL conference to date.
It was somewhat bizarre that the collapse of Lehman Brothers and its corresponding tumultuous effect on world financial markets coincided with the Shanghai conference. Having so many insolvency practitioners gathered in one place certainly allowed for the rapid dissemination of information on the changing status of world financial markets.
A comprehensive summary of the Shanghai conference, including write-ups on the individual technical sessions, is provided in the Fourth quarter edition of INSOL World, which has already been sent to members.
PRC Bankruptcy Law
The Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisers ("AIRA") held their second annual conference in Shanghai, immediately after the INSOL conference. One of the technical sessions held during the AIRA conference included a presentation on the New Enterprise Bankruptcy Law by Professor Wang Weiguo of China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Wang's presentation provided an extremely interesting update on some of the reorganisation administrations undertaken under the new bankruptcy law. Cases discussed included Xianju Hospital; the Fenghua Group and ST Canghua, which represented the first restructuring case in which the "cram-down" rule was adopted. With the kind permission of Professor Wang, the power point slides used as the basis of his presentation are reproduced here for RIF members' reference.
INSOL Fellowship
INSOL International has announced the first graduating class of the Global Insolvency Practice Course. Congratulations to the successful participants, who are now formally recognised as Fellow, INSOL International.
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Insolvency Training is Coming – Watch for Details! |
The Institute will soon be relaunching the Insolvency Preparatory I (PI) and Preparatory II (PII) courses. The PI course focuses on building a broad knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of insolvency administration and the PII course offers an in-depth and integrated study of the financial, management, legal and accounting aspects of insolvency administration. Both courses will emphasize practical issues.
The course dates and times are listed below. More course details will be announced later.
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PI course – Saturdays (8:30 am to 1:30 pm) on 28 March, 25 April, 16, 23 and 30 May 2009 |
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PII course – Saturdays (8:30 am to 1:30 pm) on 6, 13, 20, 27 June and 4 July 2009 |
The Institute also plans to reintroduce the Insolvency Diploma, starting in September 2009.
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| Your RIF Needs You! |
Do you have news that may be of interest to other members? Do you have personnel updates, new appointments that you wish to announce, or have you just set up a new firm in the insolvency field? If so, don't keep it to yourself, let other RIF members in on the news. The RIF Editorial sub-committee also needs contributions of more articles from members - a recent legal judgment or details of an interesting work assignment, perhaps. Remember The IP's Voice is your newsletter and the voice of insolvency professionals in Hong Kong.
See "Contact us" below for details if you would like to contribute an article or newsworthy items to The IP's Voice.
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| Quick links: |
 The Institute's website |
| RIF webpages |
| INSOL International |
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| Contact us |
For enquiries on the content of this e-newsletter, comments on consultations, submission of articles or newsworthy items, etc. please email Mary Lam at: rif@hkicpa.org.hk. |
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Disclaimer |
Some sections of this newsletter contain information from outside sources. We endeavour to link to reputable sources but the Institute is not responsible for the accuracy of the content and the content does not necessarily represent the views of the Institute.
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