Companies (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1999

Restriction on payment of prepetition debts.

15.—The Act of 1990 is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 5:

“5A. (1) Subject to subsection (2), no payment may be made by a company, during the period it is under the protection of the court, by way of satisfaction or discharge of the whole or a part of a liability incurred by the company before the date of the presentation under section 2 of the petition in relation to it unless the report of the independent accountant contains a recommendation that the whole or, as the case may be, the part of that liability should be discharged or satisfied.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the court may, on application being made to it in that behalf by the examiner or any interested party, authorise the discharge or satisfaction, in whole or in part, by the company concerned of a liability referred to in subsection (1) if it is satisfied that a failure to discharge or satisfy, in whole or in part, that liability would considerably reduce the prospects of the company or the whole or any part of its undertaking surviving as a going concern.”.