Vol 14 (2017) - Issue 4

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Big Fish in a Small Pond: The Views of Independent Creditors Prevail in BVI Winding up Proceedings

Introduction
On 1 December 2016, the BVI Commercial Court (the Honourable Justice Davis-White QC [Ag]) ordered the appointment of liquidators over Pacific Andes Enterprises (BVI) Limited, Parkmond Group Limited, and PARD Trade Limited (the 'Companies'), three BVI incorporated companies forming a key part of the China Fishery Group.
The applications were unsuccessfully contested on the principal ground that the appointment of liquidators would irretrievably damage the prospects of a wider, global restructuring of the Pacific Andes Group.
The BVI Court rejected that argument, and in his judgment dated 1 December 2016 Davis-White J provided a helpful analysis of the factors that a Court should take into account in determining whether to wind up a company at a contested hearing in these circumstances, and confirmed the primacy of the views of independent creditors.

Background
The China Fishery Group and certain other companies make up the Pacific Andes Group (the 'Group'), whose activities include harvesting, sourcing, ocean logistics and transportation, food safety testing, processing, marketing and distribution of frozen fish products across a broad range of markets. The Group’s holdings are substantial and include publicly listed companies on the main boards of the Singapore and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
As has been widely reported, the Group has been under sustained financial pressure for some time, with a number of Group companies seeking Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the United States, and other insolvency proceedings occurring in
numerous other jurisdictions including the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Peru and Singapore.