Clifford Chance

English Court refuses to approve restructuring plan based on cross-class cram down: dissenting shareholders are likely to be better off without the restructuring plan

30 June 2021

On 28 June, almost a year to the day since the introduction of the new English restructuring plan under Part 26A Companies Act, an application to approve a restructuring plan in respect of Hurricane Energy plc, an AIM listed company, which is part of an oil extraction group, was rejected.

This was on the basis that the plan failed to satisfy one of the key conditions set out in section 901G of the Companies Act 2006, namely that for cross-class cram down, no members of the dissenting class are worse off under the plan when compared with the relevant alternative. 

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