Understanding your rights as a creditor while navigating under China’s bankruptcy laws is becoming a must these days, especially for foreign creditors. As many foreign companies engage in business with Chinese companies, chances are likely that you will encounter a failing Chinese company that will file for bankruptcy in China. A China bankruptcy filing can have a tremendous impact upon foreign creditors.  If you are doing business with Chinese companies or have investments in Chinese companies, you should be aware of your rights as a creditor under Chinese bankruptcy laws. Knowledge about your rights as a creditor – whether it be filing a claim, recovering your property, compelling a bankruptcy administrator to continue performance of a contract or seeking its rescission, having the bankruptcy administrator examine and revoke fraudulent transfers and preferences or exercising set off rights – are all important legal rights which can help you to minimize your business risks.
Continue Reading Creditors’ Rights Clarified By Interpretation II of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People’s Republic of China

Since enacting China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in August 2008, China has been making efforts to update its antitrust laws. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) published draft regulations on the notification of mergers between enterprises, and on the examinations of mergers between enterprises for comments in January and March, 2009.Continue Reading China Finalizes Merger Control Measures

Most maritime shipping companies were operating profitably through the summer of 2008 until the "perfect storm" of the credit crisis and the worldwide recession struck, leading to the collapse of both the commodity and freight markets.  The resulting upheaval has affected trade credits, shipbuilding deliveries, orders, chartering, and sales-and-purchases, among other things, for shipping companies worldwide.  Reports of bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation and complex debt restructurings of shipping and other maritime industry companies have begun surfacing in the trade press, with more to come. 

As a result of the turmoil in the shipping industry, actions seeking attachments under Supplemental Admiralty Rule B of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have risen dramatically, further exacerbating the problems facing cash-strapped shipping companies.  As the recent U.S. bankruptcy filings of Armada (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and Atlas Shipping A/S demonstrate, Chapter 15 bankruptcy proceedings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code may provide struggling shipping companies with a powerful tool for protecting their assets from Rule B Attachments.

Continue Reading Shipping Industry Problems