Brewer & Anor v Iqbal

Mr Iqbal is an insolvency practitioner and partner at Cooper Young. He takes appointments in personal and corporate insolvencies. He was appointed administrator of ARY Digital UK Limited (the “Company”) on 19 May 2011. Mr Iqbal sold the

Company’s assets to a company incorporated by the Company’s management (I generally shall refer to the management as the “directors”) for the purpose of acquiring the assets during the administration. After the assets were sold Mr Iqbal produced a report to creditors and gave his proposals for the administration. The creditors failed to approve his proposals. The Company entered insolvent liquidation and Mr Iqbal was discharged under paragraph 98 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 . Six years from his appointment, to the day, Richard Brewer and Mark Wilson acting as joint liquidators of the Company issued an application seeking permission pursuant to paragraph 75(6) of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 to examine the conduct of Mr Iqbal. Permission was given. In this trial Mr Iqbal defends allegations that in effecting the sale of the Company’s assets shortly after he was appointed administrator he acted negligently or in breach of his equitable duty of care, breach of trust, fiduciary duty or statutory duty.

The Company was incorporated on 9 April 1999, its holding company being ARY Digital FZ LLC based in Dubai. In 2000 the Company acquired private television channels which are said to have catered for the Southeast Asian community in the UK. The ARY Digital Group describes itself as a broadcaster of customised streaming content. It is a Dubai-based holding company which was founded by a Pakistani businessman, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob in 1970. Mr Iqbal’s disclosure included a copy of an online promotion page (printed out by Mr Iqbal in May 2011) which explains that the Group is a family owned concern with main operations being handled by the four brothers. One of its aims is to promote Pakistan culture around the world but the programming also caters for Urdu speakers living in Pakistan and abroad. It does this by acquiring the rights to broadcast through digital channel networks. The broadcasts include general entertainment, food, music and religion. The Group claims to broadcast to more than 100 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the USA.

The directors and shareholders of the Company were Mr Mohammed Salman Iqbal and Mr Yaqoob. Its UK and Europe operation consisted of three channels: an entert