Stephen Moverley Smith KC provides restructuring & insolvency analysis on MTC v HRH Prince Hussam Al Saud for LexisNexis

Stephen Moverley Smith KC has written a restructuring & insolvency analysis on the residence requirement to present petition (MTC v HRH Prince Hussam Al Saud) for LexisNexis.

This article was first published by LexisNexis on 24th May 2023

Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: A creditor can present a bankruptcy petition if, among other things, the debtor has had a place of residence in the jurisdiction in the three years prior to presentation (section 265(2)(b)(i) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986)). The debtor, who resided in Saudi Arabia, applied to set aside service of the petition on the ground that IA 1986, s 265(2)(b)(i) was not satisfied. The debtor’s mother had acquired a property and later funded the purchase of further properties in London for the use of the debtor’s family. The debtor, who asserted he had no legal or beneficial interest in the properties and required permission to stay there, did not stay at any of them in the relevant period. Applying the decisions of Mrs Justice Bacon in Lakatamia Shipping Co Ltd v Su [2021] Bus LR 1285 and Mr Justice Roth in an earlier petition involving the same parties (Al Saud v Mobile Telecommunications Company KSCP [2022] EWHC 744 (Ch)), Insolvency and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Barber concluded that nonetheless the creditor had a good arguable case that IA 1986, s 265(2)(b)(i) was satisfied.

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