ABLI successfully held webinar Cross-border Restructuring: Recognition of Foreign Proceedings under the Singapore Regime and U.S. Chapter 15

On September 13, ABLI successfully held its last webinar of the year which explored the recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings under the Singapore regime and US Chapter 15, welcoming attendees who were mostly senior lawyers and turnaround professionals based in six different jurisdictions.

Sim Kwan Kiat, Head of Restructuring and Insolvency of Rajah and Tann Singapore LLP, kicked off the session with an overview of the different “models” for recognition in Asia, including the common law regime (such as Malaysia and Singapore prior to the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-border Insolvency), the civil and hybrid law regime (such as China and Indonesia), and the Model Law regime (such as the Philippines and Singapore post the adoption of the Model Law).

Dan Moss, Partner of Jones Day, then provided an introduction of US Chapter 15, focusing on the bespoke nature of the procedures and the increasing importation of Chapter 11 features into Chapter 15.

In a group discussion that followed, Kwan Kiat, Dan, Justice Aedit Abdullah of the Supreme Court of Singapore and Judge Christopher Sontchi, International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court shared their views on topics such as court-to-court communications in cross-border insolvency cases, whether recognition of foreign proceedings under the Model Law is “procedural” or “substantive” in light of recent judgements such as Eagle Hospitality Trust – Re Alan Tantleff [2022] SGHC 147 and In the matter of Rare Earth Magnesium Technology Group (provisional liquidators appointed) (for restructuring purposes only) [2022] HKCFI 1686, and third-party releases under Chapter 15 in cases such as In re Avanti Communications Group PLC, 582 B.R. 603 (2018).

ABLI is grateful to the speakers for sharing their insights, and is encouraged by the strong interest shown by attendees in such cross-border topics. We will be releasing snippets of the recording for knowledge sharing.