Bankruptcy & Insolvency

Overview

Bankruptcy & Insolvency appears in 520 reported Hong Kong judgments (1997–2026).

Personal bankruptcy and company winding-up, liquidation and restructuring cases.

Bankruptcy and insolvency covers the orderly handling of debtors who cannot meet their obligations, whether individuals or companies. On the personal side, the Bankruptcy Ordinance governs the making of bankruptcy orders, the role of the trustee, and the recovery of assets for the benefit of creditors. On the corporate side, the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance governs the winding up and liquidation of companies, the appointment and powers of liquidators, and the growing practice around restructuring and cross-border recognition, an area shaped in recent years by the collapse of several large Mainland-connected groups.

The overwhelming majority of this work is concentrated in the Court of First Instance, which exercises the companies and bankruptcy jurisdiction and hears winding-up petitions, restructuring applications and disputes brought by liquidators and trustees. Appeals proceed to the Court of Appeal and, on questions of general importance, to the Court of Final Appeal; the District Court and the Family Court appear only at the margins where related matters arise. The court's supervisory role over insolvent estates gives it wide discretionary powers that the case law continually refines.

Leading authorities include [2024] HKCFI 2260 on personal bankruptcy and [2025] HKCFI 271 and [2025] HKCFI 689 on winding up, liquidation and restructuring, while the Court of Final Appeal has addressed insolvency principles in [2021] HKCFA 14.