The Cayman Court recently sanctioned schemes of arrangement for four companies within the Ocean Rig group. All involved a "COMI shift" from the Marshall Islands to the Cayman Islands and also utilised the Cayman Islands provisional liquidation toolkit.
The process was complex and contested with a number of significant objections to one of the schemes. Many of those objections raised novel and interesting points of law which will be of relevance to participants in the global restructuring market.
The Ocean Rig restructuring process demonstrates that the Cayman Islands scheme of arrangement process is flexible and is well equipped to work through complex restructurings. Whilst there will be occasions where a larger insolvency or restructuring process is called for, in many circumstances where a targeted financial restructuring is all that is necessary, the Cayman Islands scheme of arrangement process can deliver an effective solution, including where the debt is governed by New York law and where the relevant debtors are Cayman Islands companies or other offshore companies that can be "COMI-shifted" to be brought within the Cayman Court's jurisdiction.
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