In light of the global economic dislocation and significant challenges faced by many businesses in Asia over the past year, the Hong Kong Companies Court has recently been grappling with multiple crossborder corporate insolvencies, including many that relate to Mainland China-based businesses. In this context, judicial attention has focused on a number of interesting and novel issues leading to some important legal developments and key practice points for market participants and practitioners alike.

In this update, we highlight a selection of key Court decisions which focus on cross-border recognition and assistance, restructuring and schemes of arrangement, the winding-up of foreign companies in Hong Kong and other insolvency-related issues.

These decisions mark, among other things, the first time insolvency officeholders appointed in Mainland China were recognized in Hong Kong, provide clarity on the scope of judicial assistance in Hong Kong that may be granted to foreign insolvency officeholders, illustrate a new focus on a company’s center of main interest when weighing up the primacy of competing insolvency proceedings, revisit the circumstances in which a scheme of arrangement in Hong Kong may compromise foreign-law-governed debt and shed light on why widely held expectations about the centrality of Hong Kong in the winding-up of certain Mainland Chinese business groups may be misplaced.