Companies Act 2014 section 600

Pooling of assets of related companies

Section 600 allows a court to order that two or more related companies in liquidation be wound up together as if they were a single company, pooling their assets for distribution among all creditors.

• The court may order related companies in winding up to be treated as one company for the purposes of pooling their assets and distributing them among all creditors, provided it is just and equitable to do so.
• In deciding whether pooling is just and equitable, the court considers factors such as cross-management between the companies, conduct towards each other's creditors, whether one company's actions caused another's winding up, and how intermingled the businesses were.
• Secured creditors' rights are not affected by a pooling order, and the court must have particular regard to members who hold shares in some but not all of the companies involved.
• A pooling order cannot be made solely on the basis that the companies are related to one another, or that creditors relied on that relationship.