British Virgin Islands: Insolvency/Bankruptcy

The BVI Commercial Court has clarified a longstanding practice regarding liquidator powers in compulsory winding-up orders, determining that court sanction requirements should not be automatically imposed. This judgment examines the statutory framework under the Insolvency Act 2003 and establishes that liquidators possess broad powers by default, with restrictions requiring case-specific justification rather than blanket application.

The British Virgin Islands Commercial Court has issued a significant ruling clarifying that liquidators should have broad powers to act without prior court approval, marking a departure from longstanding practice. Justice Mithani's decision in Jin Yao Holdings Ltd v Forever Winner International Ltd challenges the routine inclusion of sanction requirements in liquidation orders, restoring flexibility to insolvency practitioners while maintaining appropriate judicial oversight.

In the recent judgment in Wang Wenwei v SPQR Limited Partnership, the BVI Commercial Court considered the novel issue of whether the Court has power to appoint provisional liquidators...

In the recent decision of Byers & Richardson v Chen Ningning (BVIHCMAP2024/0009) ("Byers"), the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal ("COA") considered the scope of the director's duty to creditors when a company...

This Q&A guide to restructuring and insolvency law in the British Virgin Islands gives a high level overview of the most common forms of security granted over immovable and movable property; creditors' and shareholders...

Restoration applications are nothing new in the BVI. With hundreds of thousands of active companies and many more struck off due to administrative oversight...

In Sian Participation Corp v Halimeda International Ltd [2024] UKPC 16, a Privy Council Board comprising Lords Briggs, Hamblen, Burrows, Reed and Lloyd-Jones considered the issue of whether insolvency proceedings...

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) offers a flexible regime for aircraft financing structures. Typically these will involve the incorporation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which will hold the title to the aircraft.

In an important decision which is likely to be widely cited, and to have significant ramifications for practice in the English Companies Court...