Company
Re ALL Scheme Ltd [2022] EWHC 549 (Ch), [2022] All ER (D) 121 (Mar)
The Chancery Division allowed an application, brought by a newly established company which had executed a deed poll to assume joint liability to creditors of a group of companies (Amigo), for permission to convene simultaneous scheme meetings to consider two alternative schemes of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006, namely the New Business Scheme (NBS) and the Wind-Down Scheme (WDS), in circumstances where Amigo, providers of guarantor loans, faced a significant number of claims, made through the Financial Ombudsman (FOS fee claims) or otherwise (redress claims), in relation to their mis-sale of loans based on the affordability for the customers. The court held that: (i) as in Re Port Finance Investment Limited [2021] EWHC 378 (Ch), there was no obvious ‘roadblock’ which would lead the court at the sanction hearing to consider that the release of Amigo companies and their directors by way of the deed of release fell outside the scope of Part 26; (ii) there had been no sufficiently material dissimilarity
