UK: The Supreme Court on the 'creditor duty' - its existence, content and engagement

And so we have it - one of the most important company law judgments of recent years: BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA & Ors [2022] UKSC 25. The existence of the common law 'creditor duty' (also known as the 'rule in West Mercia' after the case West Mercia Safetywear v Dodd [1988] BCLC 250) has been confirmed and its content and application explained. A summary of the judgment is available here and here (pdf). A summary was also read out by Lord Briggs in the Supreme Court yesterday - see below (if the video does not appear below, it can also be found here): 

Malta: MFSA publishes new corporate governance code

Earlier this year - in March, to be precise - I noted that the Malta Financial Services Authority was consulting on a new corporate governance code that would cover all unlisted MFSA authorised entities. The consultation has since ended and the new code published: see here (pdf). 

G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance - consultation on proposed revisions

The OECD has published for consultation the revisions it proposes to make to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance: see here (pdf). The public consultation ends later this month on the 21st.  Amongst the revisions is a proposed new chapter on sustainability and resilience.  

UK: The directors' duty to consider the interests of creditors - Supreme Court judgment this week in BTI case

After an unplanned break from blogging, I am happy to return with news that, on Wednesday this week (October 5), the UK Supreme Court will deliver its judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA [2022] UKSC 25. The court was required to consider, to quote directly from its summary, whether "the trigger for the directors' duty to consider creditors is merely a real risk of, as opposed to a probability of or close proximity to, insolvency".  

UK: FRC publishes guidance on running effective AGMs and other general meetings

The Financial Reporting Council has, for the first time, published specific guidance on the effective running of AGMs and other general meetings by listed companies: see here (pdf). The guidance contains, in total, seven principles that are organised within four time periods: before the meeting; during the meeting; after the meeting; and engagement throughout the year.