RE GRAND HORIZON LTD (Company No. 516679)

HCCW 10/2018

[2019] HKCFI 726

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

COMPANIES WINDING-UP PROCEEDINGS NO 10 OF 2018

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D E C I S I O N

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1.  I have before me a winding-up petition dated 10 January 2018. The petitioner seeks a winding-up order on the grounds of insolvency. The petitioner asserts that it is owed USD613,246.90 in the petition, being the outstanding balance of the purchase price of various goods, it says, were sold by it to the Company. The precise details of how that sum is made up do not matter. The petitioner explains in its evidence that the debt is proved by a settlement agreement signed between the petitioner and the Company dated 20 September 2017 which acknowledges the sum due.

2.  Initially the petition was disputed by the Company which filed evidence suggesting that the signing of the settlement agreement was a mistake as it would appear that the company, so it was alleged, who owed the money which led to the signing of the settlement agreement was an associated company rather than the Company, the subject of this petition.

3.  Subsequently a supporting creditor has come forward asserting that it also is owed a significant sum by the Company, and originally it was the intention of the petitioner to amend the petition to refer to that debt also in order to prove insolvency.

4.  As matters transpired, the Company did not appear before me today.  I understand from correspondence the court has received by its solicitors that the Company has withdrawn its instructions to them.  It seems to me, having read the evidence filed by the petitioner, that the evidence filed by the Company is in any event insufficient to prove a bona fide defence on substantial grounds, and it is likely that I would have so concluded if the matter had been argued which it has not been.

5.  As the Company has not appeared before me to oppose the petition, it is not necessary for the amendments to be made to it that would have introduced the additional claim by the supporting creditor.  I will simply make the normal winding-up order and order that one set of costs is also paid by the Company to the supporting creditor.