Vol 18 (2021) - Issue 6

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New Look and Regis: New Life and Rejuvenation for Leasehold CVAs?

Synopsis
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the wide-reaching legislative reforms introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, the first half of the calendar year 2021 has seen a flurry of restructuring and insolvency-related court cases.
Alongside the steady stream of landmark early-use cases of the new restructuring plan, and the continued prevalence of the scheme of arrangement as a flexible and efficient restructuring tool, landlord challenges to the use of the 'company voluntary arrangement' ('CVA') have been a key area of Court focus – nowhere more so than in the highly anticipated judgments in Lazari Properties 2 Limited & Ors v New Look Retailers Limited & Ors [2021] EWHC 1209 (Ch) ('New Look') and later in Carraway Guildford (Nominee A) Ltd & Ors v Regis UK Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 1294 (Ch) ('Regis').
These two cases have individually been the subject of articles in different editions of International Corporate Rescue, so we do not propose to discuss the facts of either CVA in great detail in this article. It should also be noted that, at the time of writing (early July 2021), the Court's judgment in New Look is due to be appealed.
This article does not discuss the prospective appeal, the aspects on which it might focus, or any likely outcome.
Rather, the intention here is to take a combined view of these cases as they currently stand, to tease out certain legal and practical lessons for companies and their advisers, and to assess the position of CVAs within the broader UK restructuring and insolvency landscape.