Kipoi Holdings Mauritius Ltd v Tiger Resources Ltd (Subject to Deed of Company Arrangement)

The appeal concerns a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) executed in respect of Tiger Resources Ltd, a company which was in voluntary administration. Kipoi Holdings Mauritius Ltd, which was a secured creditor of Tiger, brought an application to set aside the Tiger DOCA on the basis that, prior to the resolution of creditors at the second meeting of creditors, false or misleading information had been provided to unsecured creditors by the administrators and a related company of the purported majority secured lender. The application was dismissed by Master Sanderson, and the appeal against the master's decision was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The appeal concerns two aspects of the master's decision. The first aspect concerns the master's refusal to vacate the hearing date for the trial and adjourn the trial to allow Kipoi the opportunity to file further evidence. The second aspect concerns the master's dismissal of Kipoi's application to terminate the Tiger DOCA. As to the first aspect, the master was correct to find that the additional evidence in connection with which Kipoi made its application for adjournment, being evidence as to the alleged invalidity of the transfer of certain secured debt to Jinji, would have made no difference to the outcome of the proceedings. As to the second aspect, the statements by the administrators and YYT which Kipoi seeks to impugn did not provide false or misleading information to unsecured creditors. In any event, even if the master had erred in so holding, we would not terminate the Tiger DOCA in any re-exercise of the discretion conferred by s 445D(1) of the Act.