In August, I discussed a part of the global restructuring of the Dutch Syncreon Group. See blog/2019-08-doc1-scheme-of-arrangement-does-english-court-has-jurisdiction-re-dutch-b-v. In the subsequent blog (2019-08-doc2a), I gave some detail about the query who is to decided that someone is a ‘foreign representative’? The blog 2019-08-doc1 ended with: ‘To be continued’. Indeed, one can follow the (envisaged) global restructuing nearly virtualy.
The respective scheme of arrangement has been successfully approved by the English court (see Syncreon Group BV [2019] EWHC 2412 (Ch) on 10 September 2019. Falk J granted the order (www.casemine.com). The case will get headlines in the law books as it is the first in this decennium in which a Canadian court (Ontario Superior Court of Justice) recognized the English scheme as well as the order convening the meetings of creditors, granted by the English Court.
Recognition was one of the conditions precedent to implementation of the schemes. I have not found yet, whether the other condition, recognition by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court pursuant to Chapter 15, has been fulfilled. The general approach taken by the Canadian court could be expected, as its legal system (CCAA), including several of its leading practitioners and judges, have a long tradition of fostering comity, promoting cross-border judicial cooperation and fair and efficient administration of cross-border insolvencies in order to enable companies to restructure on a cross-border basis.