From our offices in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong we provide comprehensive insolvency and restructuring advice and services to clients worldwide in relation to Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands law. We are frequently involved in the largest and most complex contentious and non-contentious liquidations and restructurings in both jurisdictions.
A distinguished group of litigators with a formidable reputation for top-notch capabilities and client service.
Our Insolvency and Restructuring team is one of the largest in the Cayman Islands and is widely acknowledged as a market leader. Campbells has particular expertise in investment fund disputes and insolvencies. As can be seen from our Representative Cases below, Campbells has taken a lead or major role in most of the significant insolvency and restructuring cases in the Cayman Islands and is seen as a first choice firm for the insolvency and restructuring profession.
We act for local and overseas insolvency and restructuring professionals, creditors, investors, minority shareholders, directors, investment managers and other professional service providers in connection with all aspects of the restructuring and winding up of companies, investment funds, limited partnerships and structured finance entities. We have specific experience of coordinating cross-border appointments, obtaining and discharging injunctions, assisting with gathering evidence and obtaining recognition and assistance from overseas courts.
We take pride in our responsiveness and levels of service, the quality of our advice and advocacy, and above all our long track record of achieving our clients’ objectives in and out of court in a commercial and cost-effective manner. Our litigators have the experience and strength in depth to handle the largest and most complex disputes, liquidations and restructurings and our Hong Kong office allows us to provide 24-hour coverage where required. The size of our team also enables us to ensure that each case is staffed appropriately, which in turn leads to cost efficiencies and value for our clients.
Representative Insolvency & Restructuring Cases
ABRAAJ Investment Management Limited– acting as Cayman counsel for the joint official liquidators of AIML, the investment manager to more than 40 private equity funds forming part of the Abraaj group. At its peak AIML had US$14 billion of assets under management and was the leading private equity firm operating in emerging markets. It is considered to be the largest insolvency ever of a private equity group. Campbells are advising the JOLs on complex asset sales, the alleged misappropriation of hundreds of millions of capital contributed by investors to certain funds, claims commenced by the United States Department of Justice and the SEC as well as investors and creditors and claims that AIML has against third parties.
Campbells advises ABRAAJ Investment Management Limited on sale of Colony Capital
Saad Investments Company Limited – acting for the liquidation committee of SICL to advise in connection with matters arising during the liquidation of that company, including in relation to the conduct of the well-known Cayman Islands litigation brought against SICL by Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers Company. Additionally, the liquidation encompasses litigation and claims in multiple other jurisdictions, including the United States, England & Wales, Australia and the Middle East.
China Medical Technologies, Inc – acting for the Cayman joint official liquidators of CMED in connection with their worldwide efforts for the benefit of noteholders to recover US$630 million of which the company appears to have been defrauded.
Ocean Rig – acting for a significant group of noteholders in one of the world’s largest-ever restructurings (and the largest judicially approved restructuring to date in the Cayman Islands). Ocean Rig UDW Inc is an international contractor of offshore deep-water drilling services. Together with three of its subsidiaries, Ocean Rig successfully sought and obtained the sanction of the Cayman Islands Grand Court for four inter-related schemes of arrangement which restructured over US$3.69 billion of New York law governed debt.
LDK Solar Co., Ltd – acting for the holding company and its Cayman joint provisional liquidators in respect of the successful global restructuring of the group’s US$1 billion of offshore debt involving schemes of arrangement in the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong and multiple Chapter 11 proceedings and Chapter 15 proceedings in the United States. The LDK Solar group was then one of the world’s largest manufacturers of photovoltaic products.
Campbells Represents LDK Solar in US$700m Restructuring
LDK Solar: A New Dawn in International Restructuring
Bona Film Group Limited – acting for the joint provisional liquidators of the company, a leading film group distributor in the PRC.
OAS SA – acting for the OAS Group of companies in relation to two of its BVI subsidiaries in what was the largest cross-border restructuring matter in the BVI in 2015-16, involving a debtor-in-possession bankruptcy process in Brazil and a Chapter 15 process in the United States, as well as strategic litigation in the BVI. Campbells continues to advise the group in the implementation of its restructuring plan in the BVI and the Cayman Islands.
Arcapita Investment Holdings Limited – acting for the Cayman joint provisional liquidators of AIHL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcapita Bank B.S.C., a leading sharia compliant international investment bank incorporated in Bahrain, in respect of the successful cross-border restructuring of the group’s debt of US$1.3 billion through parallel provisional liquidation proceedings in the Cayman Islands and Chapter 11 proceedings in New York.
Palm Beach Offshore Funds and Lancelot Investors Fund – acting for the Cayman joint official liquidators of funds which had suffered total losses of their investments
XIO Group – acting for the private equity group XIO in a multi-billion US dollar ownership dispute with a prominent Chinese businessman which has resulted in legal proceedings in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and the PRC and in three sets of arbitration proceedings in Hong Kong.
Primeo Fund – acting for HSBC and Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) Limited in a complex multi-jurisdictional claim for damages exceeding US$2 billion brought by liquidators of the Primeo Fund, a Madoff feeder fund. The claim relates to services provided by the defendants to the Primeo Fund prior to its liquidation.
Primeo Fund v HSBC: Grand Court rules that Madoff feeder funder was “the author of its own misfortune”
Award of costs against non-parties in proceedings outside of their control
Herald v Primeo: The Court of Appeal clarifies the status and priority of unpaid redemption creditors
Primeo v Herald: Clarifying the Rights of Redeemed Investors
Weavering Macro Fixed Income Fund Limited (in liquidation) v. Stefan Peterson and Hans Ekstrom – acting for the former directors of the Weavering fund in successfully appealing against an order by which they had been held liable, in a landmark decision, for damages of US$111 million said to have been suffered by the fund as a result of their alleged wilful default.
Culross Global SPC Ltd. v. Strategic Turnaround Master Partnership Ltd – acting for the successful petitioning creditor in obtaining a winding up order against a fund in the first case in which the Privy Council considered the status of redeemed investors.