Clarifying COMI: Locating A Debtor's Centre Of Main Interests

On July 6, 2012, in Lightsquared LP (Re),¹ the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the "Ontario Court"), released reasons that clarify the criteria for the identification of the centre of main interest ("COMI") of an applicant seeking recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings as "Foreign Main Proceedings" pursuant to Section 46 of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA").²

Part IV of the CCAA, a relatively new legal framework (September 2009), is modeled on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and provides a regime for dealing with cross-border insolvencies in Canada. On an application seeking recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings, the court must determine if the proceeding is a "foreign proceeding" and if the applicant is a "foreign representative," as defined by the CCAA. If the court is satisfied as to these two questions, the court is required to recognize the foreign proceeding. The court must then determine whether the