How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect borrowers and lenders and their financing arrangements?

A Material Adverse Effect (MAE) clause is included in most finance agreements. It is a catch-all concept to capture unpredictable and unforeseen events or circumstances that would otherwise be difficult to incorporate into the agreement specifically.

Broadly, a MAE clause covers a

As a general rule, a party is excused from rendering contractual performance if it becomes physically or legally impossible for such party to perform. But a defence of impossibility of performance will not succeed if, when the impossibility intervened, the performance was overdue. In such a case, the rule is that lateness perpetuates the obligation,

COVID-19 and force majeure

Will the corona virus (COVID-19) constitute a force majeure event under South African law? The answer to that is it depends. The virus has been declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and is causing economic chaos on an international scale never seen before, due to the closure of