A deed of company arrangement cannot extinguish or release contractual rights that are properly characterised as rights of the counterparty in its capacity as debtor (such as rights to satisfy payment obligations by means other than cash), because such rights are not 'claims' of 'creditors' within s 444D(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The phrase 'so far as concerns' a claim in s 444D(1) requires a direct and immediate relationship with the claim, not merely a connection or relation to it. Contractual deferral rights providing a substituted form of payment do not give rise to contingent claims for breach of contract where there is no correlative obligation on the company that could be breached.
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