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17 January 2018
Insolvency Guardian Media Centre
Stay informed with the latest in insolvency news and industry updates. We can keep you up to date with insolvency and finance information from around the world.
Bonus payments to directors and former executives of collapsed construction company Carillion have been stopped and an agreement has been reached on safeguarding thousands of private sector jobs, the UK governments Insolvency Service said on Wednesday.
Any bonus payment to directors, beyond the liquidation date, have been stopped and this includes the severance payments which were being paid to some senior executives who left the company, said a spokesman for the Insolvency Service.
At the same time, more than 90 per cent of the private sector customers who employed Carillions cleaners and maintenance workers have now promised to provide interim funding that will allow them to be paid.
But there was less clarity for those wor…
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/e29644e6-fad1-11e7-9b32-d7d59aace167
The group said it will reduce its five operating businesses to three core units, civil aerospace, defence and power systems, as part of a simplification of the business.
At the same time, Rolls will begin a strategic review of its commercial marine operation, which supplies equipment and vessel design across oil and gas markets.
The marine unit booked a £27 million loss in 2016 on sales of £1.1 billion as it was impacted by weak demand.
Boss Warren East said: This is the right time to be evaluating the strategic options for our commercial marine operation.
The team there has responded admirably to a significant downturn in the offshore oil and gas market to reduce its cost base.
At the same time, we have carved out an indust…
Read the full article at: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/rollsroyce-announces-restructure-with-marine-unit-up-for-sale-36499579.html
Rolls-Royce will consider selling its commercial marine business as chief executive Warren East launches the strategic phase of the blue-chip engineers two-year restructuring.
Mr East said he was looking at the strategic options for the division as part of a wider shake-up that will reduce the number of divisions from five to three.
People with knowledge of the situation said Rolls-Royce was prepared to sell the business if suitable offers emerged.
Mr East said the actions were designed to align our business more closely with our strategic vision to pioneer cutting-edge technologies that deliver vital power.
He added the…
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/1399b374-fb7d-11e7-9b32-d7d59aace167
The court applied the principles outlined in the 1990 case of Guinness v Saunders rather than the more recent decision in Global v Hale in finding that the directors had acted in breach of their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the creditors. They misapplied the company’s assets for their own benefit and failed to exercise their powers for the proper purposes. It ruled that the directors were misfeasant for the purposes of section 212 of the Insolvency Act 1986 and jointly and severally liable to repay the entire sum together with interest.
Prior to its liquidation the company had two successful years of trading in the supply and installation of solar panels, having benefitted from a government incentive in place at the…
Read the full article at: https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2018/january/directors-must-repay-sums-withdrawn-from-company-in-liquidation-rules-high-court/
Questions over Cardiff Seafood Shack restaurant closure
Darryl Kavanagh set up the Seafood Shack restaurant in Cardiff’s High Street last year
A Cardiff restaurant which reportedly closed after a cyber attack in December may have become insolvent two months earlier, it has been claimed.
The Seafood …
Read the full article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-42707427
Chinas supreme court released a new interpretation of the countrys marriage law on Wednesday detailing how courts should handle debt dispute cases that usually involve divorced couples.
In the document, the Supreme Peoples Court says that in cases where a loan was taken out under the name of one individual to cover costs beyond the familys daily expenses, then courts should not hold their spouse or former spouse responsible for repaying the money.
The new interpretation released today means a fresh page for all of us, said a divorcée surnamed Chen who has become an advocate for spouses in such situations. She declined to give Sixth Tone her full name, citing privacy concerns.
In recent years, th…
Read the full article at: http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001573/supreme-court-clarifies-debt-after-divorce-rulings
Pearson, the UK educational publisher, expects profits next year to be lower than in 2017 because of costs from selling parts of its business and the impact of the weaker dollar against the pound.
The FTSE 100 company forecast on Wednesday that this years profits would come in at the top end of guidance as its restructuring programme pays off but warned there was unlikely to be a recovery in its US textbooks business.
At December 2016 exchange rates, when the dollar was stronger, full-year adjusted operating profits were expected to be between £600m and £605m, Pearson said. This was at the upper end of guidance issued in …
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/d050df28-fb5b-11e7-9b32-d7d59aace167
A HALESOWEN man who ran up a gambling site bill for more than £1,000 on a work mobile phone has been locked up for 10 months.
Allan Clarke kept ringing a telephone gambling app and also ordered £4,300 worth of power tools on the company account and sold them on, said Andrew Wilkins, prosecuting.
He told Wolverhampton Crown Court the 38-year-old worked as a production supervisor for BMI Engineering and he was making calls on his mobile that cost £30 a time.
When the company realised his phone bill was far higher than it should have been, Clarke tendered his resignation.
It was then discovered he had ordered £4,387 worth of power tools from a local supplier on the company account and they were then sold….
Read the full article at: http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/15847103.Gambler_jailed_for_10_months_after_racking_up_debt_on_work_mobile/
LONDON (Reuters) – Pearson said it had seen no let up in the pressures weighing on its North American business as retail partners turned increasingly cautious when ordering books, sending its shares down more than 6 percent.
In a full-year trading update, Pearson said sales in U.S. higher education course materials fell 3 percent on an underlying basis, in line with the lower end of its revised guidance range.
However, that disappointed some investors as the group had said in October that the pressures were easing.
For 2018 it forecast revenues from the U.S. higher education courseware business to be flat to down by a mid-single digit percent. Its shares fell 6.5 percent by 0905 GMT.
Hit by the shift to digital from paper textbooks, Pear…
Read the full article at: http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKKBN1F60PM
Darryl Kavanagh set up the Seafood Shack restaurant in Cardiff’s High Street last year
A Cardiff restaurant which reportedly closed after a cyber attack in December may have become insolvent two months earlier, it has been claimed.
The Seafood Shack shut on 29 December, six months after it opened, blaming a “malicious internal” attack and then the loss of its alcohol licence.
The firm consulted insolvency experts in October but a director has denied continuing to trade while insolvent.
Staff and suppliers are owed money, and a creditors meeting is due to be held.
Darryl Kavanagh, one…
Read the full article at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-42707427
Resolution professionals said they had submitted their suggestions on the issue to a government panel formed to address concerns around the IBC. Photo: Mint
Mumbai: Resolution professionals (RPs) appointed to manage companies taken to the bankruptcy court have sought clarity on how to proceed when these companies refuse to cooperate with them, two RPs working on large bankruptcy cases said.
Several companies have turned hostile after a recent law made it tough for promoters to regain control of their companies in bankruptcy auctions, the two said on condition of anonymity. RPs said they had submitted their suggestions on the issue to a government panel formed to address concerns around the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
The Insolvenc…
Read the full article at: http://www.livemint.com/Companies/A9lpmmFBJHq8rrU6uKaM8H/Insolvency-resolution-professionals-seek-clarity-on-complian.html
The state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has been accused of scuppering an 11th-hour deal to save Carillion.
Keith Cochrane, the interim chief executive of Carillion, has claimed that the bank took unilateral action that in the companys view undermined the groups efforts to conserve cash. He made the claim in a witness statement submitted to the High Court as part of the companys insolvency process.
The document shows Carillion had just £29 million of cash reserves when it collapsed and also reveals the last-ditch efforts by its board over Christmas and the new year to reach a rescue deal.
Mr Cochrane, 52, a chartered accountant and the former boss of Weir, the engineering group, and Stagecoach, the transport company, was brought in to ru…
Read the full article at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rbs-ruined-rescue-deal-by-changing-the-rules-says-chief-p86kmtxp6