Putting Jersey Companies Into English Administration

A Jersey company or one of its creditors may wish the company to be placed into administration in England under Schedule B1 of the UK's Insolvency Act 1986 (the "Act").

The ability to continue the business of an insolvent company as a going concern may be in the best interests of the creditors of the company, particularly where the assets of the company comprise commercial property in England. In both structured finance and bank financed transactions where UK real estate is being held through offshore borrower vehicles for tax and other reasons, there may be solid income streams even if loan to value ratios have declined below the level permitted in the transaction documents. Creditors may not wish for the property to be the subject of a forced sale into a depressed market and the structure liquidated. While in Jersey both a désastre and a just and equitable winding up may permit the business of the company to be continued for a time, there is no equivalent to an English administration order whereby an insolvency practitioner is appointed with the objective of (for example) rescuing a company and the whole or any part of its undertaking as a going concern, or achieving a more advantageous realisation for creditors than would be effected on a winding up.

There are two circumstances in which the High Court of England and Wales ("English Court") will have jurisdiction to make an administration order in respect of a Jersey company:

COMI: A company incorporated in Jersey but with its centre of main interests (or "COMI") in a member state of the European Community other than Denmark will be a "company" for the purposes of Schedule B1. So if, for example, a Jersey incorporated company has its COMI in England, the English Court will have jurisdiction to place it into administration under the Act. Letter of request: On the face of the Act, the English Court has no power to make an administration order against a Jersey company which has its COMI in Jersey. However, the Royal Court of Jersey ("Jersey Court") can, by way of letter of request, endow the English Court with jurisdiction over a Jersey company to make such an order if appropriate as a matter of English law. The letter of request will be received by the English Court under section 426 of the Act - see HSBC v Tambrook [2013] EWCA Civ 576, [2014] Ch 252. The first case where the Jersey Court issued such a letter of request was OT Computers Limited UJ 2002/29, 2002 JLR N10. Bedell Cristin acted...

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