Concordia: Novel Features In A CBCA Restructuring

I. INTRODUCTION

In September 2018, Concordia International Corp. and Concordia Healthcare (Canada) Limited (collectively, "Concordia") implemented a plan of arrangement under the CanadaBusiness Corporations Act²("CBCA") that has the potential to expand the use of the CBCA arrangement provision through two innovative features. First, in approving Concordia's Plan of Arrangement, Morawetz R.S.J. of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sanctioned relief which, in effect, limited recovery on equity claims embodied in class action proceedings which were extant to available insurance proceeds, and released all other equity claims against Concordia.' Such provisions, while common in plans of arrangement under the Companies Creditors' Arrangement Act⁴ ("CCAA"), had not previously been implemented within a CBCA plan of arrangement. Second, Morawetz R.S.J. granted a preliminary interim order (containing a stay of proceedings) in circumstances where Concordia did not yet have