On 14 July 2026, the Commercial Court handed down judgment in favour of GLAS SAS (London Branch) in its claims relating to the misappropriation of €85m ofshares in the listed French luxury fashion brand SMCP.
The Court found that the SMCP shares (representing c.15% of SMCP’s issued share capital), which had been held by the bond issuer European TopSoho Sarl (ETS), had been improperly transferred away from ETS in October 2021, following a default under the bonds.
The Judge agreed with GLAS and with ETS’s Luxembourg Curator that these steps had been taken pursuant to a fraudulent transaction purporting to enforce security rights under a 2018 Chinese Law agreement which was not valid or genuine, and pursuant to a Share Sale Agreement which was not legally valid. He held that this amounted to a transaction at an undervalue with the intention of defrauding GLAS as a creditor. He held that the Second to Fourth Defendants were liable to GLAS under s.423 of the Insolvency Act 1986, in unlawful means conspiracy, inducing breach of contract and under Luxembourg law.
Alex Barden KC acted for GLAS, instructed by Jenner & Block. Leonora Sagan (at an earlier stage) and Christopher Langley (at trial) acted for ETS’s Luxembourg Curator, instructed by CMS.
The judgment can be found here.
The Court of Appeal’s previous judgment on an interlocutory point can be found here.
