The proposal to reinstate Crown preference in insolvency has met resistance from all angles; the insolvency profession, turnaround experts, accountants, lawyers and funders. But despite HMRC’s bold statement in its consultation paper that the re-introduction of Crown preference will have little impact on funders, it is clear following a discussion with lenders that it may well have a far wider impact on existing and new business, business rescue and the economy in general than HMRC…

Over the last 12 months Squire Patton Boggs have been involved in video interviews and roundtable meetings with experts from our global network of business leaders, to enable us to provide guidance to our clients on the economic and political issues they are likely to face in trading internationally post Brexit. The key jurisdictions that we have looked at are the USA, China, the EU, India and the Commonwealth generally.…

In the holiday season many of us jet-set to foreign shores – but do we ever think  about how we might get home if our budget airline goes bust or are we just hunting for the best deals to make the pound stretch further? The last decade has seen a number of airlines collapse or be swallowed up by competitors: Airline Ceased operation Reason Monarch Airlines 2017 Administration Air Berlin 2017 Administration British Midland International…

Estate agents’ fees (which often feel excessive on top of all the other costs of moving house) have been largely accepted as a normal cost of selling your house. Or at least they used to be. However this may not be the case anymore with property owners increasingly using online agents that offer low-cost fixed fees to try and reduce the overall costs of selling a house. The rise of online agents over the years…

In a retail world that is ever changing, could the big four supermarket giants become the big three? Sainsbury’s and Yorkshire-based supermarket Asda (the second and third largest supermarkets in the UK) have announced they are at an ‘advanced’ stage in proposed merger talks. The merger could result in approximately 2,800 stores and represent over 30% of the UK grocery market. (Note that these figures are dependent on the Competition and Markets Authority review and…

Jamie Oliver’s two flagship restaurants have hit the headlines this week, with the upmarket steak restaurant Barbecoa in London’s Piccadilly closing. This comes shortly after last month’s announcement that Jamie’s Italian was closing 12 of its 37 restaurants, following the 6 sites that closed in January 2017. The Guardian reported that the number of UK restaurants “going under” jumped by a fifth in 2017 and it appears that 2018’s tough market will be just as…

With Christmas a distant memory, Easter and the first quarter of 2017 behind us and summer and a General Election just around the corner, how are UK retailers shaping up? You will be aware that 2016 saw many well-known retailers fall upon hard times, not least BHS amidst great controversy, Austin Reed the office-wear retailer and Brantano the value shoe maker (to name just a few) each entering administration. The question is whether this trend in retail hardship is…