Part 26 Scheme Rejected

• Published date: 11 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring, Financial Restructuring, Insolvency/Bankruptcy
• Law Firm: Mills & Reeve
• Author: Morgan Bowen

Part 26 scheme of arrangement rejected by the court on the basis, inter alia, of defects in the explanatory statement.

The court refused to sanction a Part 26 scheme. The court reasoned as follows:

• The explanatory statement, in presenting formal insolvency as the only alternative to the scheme, failed fairly and fully to explain to those creditors the realistically probable alternatives in view of the fact that there was still some breathing space to explore alternative restructurings.
• The explanatory statement should also have explained the basis on which it was being proposed by the directors that the shareholders were to retain their full equity.
• For these and other reasons, the explanatory statement was insufficient to inform the scheme creditors about the scheme to enable them to form a reasonable judgment on whether or not the scheme was in their interests. This conclusion was reinforced by other features: that the scheme creditors lacked any advice; that there was no steering group; that there was no negotiation; and that the turnout at the meeting was less...