Yesterday GM participated in a session organised by Society Education entitled ‘Dissolution and Consequential Winding up of Companies’. This was an afternoon seminar which discussed the main types of dissolutions available under the Maltese Companies Act (Cap. 386) as well as a more practical overview of the subject.

Under Maltese law there are two main types of modes of winding up; winding up by the Court or voluntary winding up, which can either be a members’ or creditors’ voluntary winding up. The session first dealt with the notion of Court winding up and then moved onto the voluntary winding up. It was interesting to see that in a Court’s winding up, Maltese courts today still rely heavily on UK company law and case law, particularly, in light of the two possibilities for Court winding up under Maltese law through Article 214 (2) of the Companies Act which are frequently linked to the ‘cash flow insolvency’ and the ‘balance sheet insolvency’, respectively, as found under UK law, even though, the said types of winding up, are not specifically stated in our law.

When it comes to Voluntary winding up, Maltese law is somewhat clearer and more straightforward as to the procedures to be followed. It was emphasised during this part of the session that, whether there are two different types of voluntary winding up, the two are rather similar and the differences between them can be said to be of minimal nature.

The session ended with a brief discussion on winding up of insurance undertakings, the winding up of credit institutions and controlled companies as well as a brief on the duties of directors, both as directors of an active company as well as the duties and the seizure thereof of directors of companies which are placed in liquidation.