If your company is in financial difficulty and heading towards insolvency, there are options available which allow a company to be guided through its financial distress. The best option for your company depends on the solvency of the company and the broad range of director duties and obligations. In this article, we examine the three…

The collapse of Storm Financial Limited (Storm) occurred in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (GFC) and reads like a textbook cautionary tale for directors and officers. Background Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis established Storm and at all relevant times held all shares in the company and were the only executive directors. Prior…

About half of all Australians do not have a valid Will. Of those who do, many put their Will away in the bottom drawer of their filing cabinet and never think of it again. But making a Will is not a once in a lifetime task. Rather, it’s something that needs to be reconsidered and…

Essentially, a company charge is a security interest held by a lender over the personal property of a company. The charge is given by the company (the chargor) to the lender (the chargee) to secure payment of a debt or obligation. A charge does not give the lender a legal interest in the property by…

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is the Government body appointed to regulate corporations, managed investment schemes and those involved in the financial services and credit industries. The breadth of ASIC’s regulatory powers is evident in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (the ASIC Act) which empowers it to ‘take whatever action…

Sellers (vendors) and purchasers of a business sometimes enter into a transaction which involves Vendor Finance. The vendor provides some of the funding required by the purchaser to buy the business – usually the purchaser pays a deposit or portion of the purchase price and the vendor funds the balance (essentially by way of a…

A company is an association incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the ‘Act’). The effect of incorporation gives the company a separate entity, distinct from its directors and shareholders. It can enter into contracts, sue and be sued in its own right. The Australian Investment and Securities Commission (ASIC) is the Government body authorised…

Although Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing email as far back as 1972 if anyone then had suggested that by 2016 email and other electronic communications would be widely accepted as a way of transacting business their comments would almost certainly have been met with at least a modicum of derision. However, this is exactly…

A recent joint investigation by Four Corners and Fairfax Media found evidence of the systemic underpayment of wages as well as the doctoring and falsifying of payroll records by 7-Eleven, the largest convenience store chain in Australia. That investigation was then followed by an Inquiry by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Following the release of the…

Applying for Substitution in Winding Up Proceedings In winding up proceedings, if the debtor company pays out the applicant’s debt, the Court has power to order the substitution of another creditor as the applicant for a winding up. The substitution process can be very cost-effective and efficient because after substitution, the application proceeds as if…