Centre of main interests and rebutting the registered office presumption (Re Melars Group)

Article summary

Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: On the hearing of a winding up petition, the court held that the presumption that a company’s centre of main interests (COMI) was in the place of its registered office did not operate as a default. Even where it was difficult to ascertain the actual place of administration of the company’s interests, the court was obliged to conduct that inquiry. Having determined that no relevant administration was undertaken in the place of the registered office, the court turned to establishing the physical location that represented the centre of its administration albeit that it was said to ‘trade in the ether’. While leaving open the question of whether, under the preamble to the Recast Regulation on Insolvency, the company could be ordered to submit additional evidence to support its assertion as to its COMI (in this case, the company made no positive case), the court was prepared to draw adverse inferences in favour of...