Significant innovations have been introduced in Italy by Law Decree no. 83 of 27 June 2015 (entitledUrgent Measures on Insolvency, Civil and Procedural Matters and the Organization and Functioning of Judicial Commissioners (the "Decree").The Decree was converted by the Italian Parliament into statutory law no.132 enacted 6 August 2015 (the "Conversion Law").
Two recent decisions of the Court of Rovereto (16 July 2015) and of the Court of Rimini (1 October 2015) reached opposite conclusions.
The case
E’ valida ed immediatamente efficace la rinuncia alla domanda di concordato effettuata prima dell’udienza ex art. 173 LF ed ostativa alla dichiarazione di fallimento.
La Corte d’Appello di Milano, con sentenza n. 4133/2015, prende posizione su un tema particolarmente dibattuto relativo all’applicabilità o meno dell’art. 306 c.p.c. all’atto di rinuncia della domanda di concordato preventivo della debitrice.
The Court of Como, by order of 27 May 2015, authorised the Judicial Liquidator to settle the dispute with the lawyer who advised the company in the concordato preventivo procedure, and this even against the advice of the Creditors’ Committee.
The case
With the decision of 16 September 2015, No. 18131, the Court of Cassation settled a long-standing debate, ruling that the trustee can not terminate an agreement to sell real estate property, entered into by the company which is later declared bankrupt, if the purchaser has registered with the Land Registry, before bankruptcy, its claim to the Court to be transferred title to the property.
The case
Creditors being now allowed to make competing concordato proposals restricts the exclusive powers of the debtor, which are now limited to the choice to commence the procedure, while on the other side it is now always mandatory that a competitive bid process is carried on for the sale of business units and assets, when the proposal of the debtor provides for an already designated buyer
Concordato competing proposals by creditors
The Tribunal of Milan allowed a concordato preventivo proposal to be amended, providing that additional resources for the creditors could be made available through a lien on real estate property belonging to a shareholder of the company.
The case
NCTM Studio Legale Associato assisted a company in filing and subsequently amending a concordato preventivo proposal before the Tribunal of Milan.
Composition with creditors
New rules for the competitive bid process aimed at the sale of the debtor’s assets in each phase or type of concordato preventivo procedure, which can now take place even before the confirmation order of the Court.
Competitive sale of debtor’s assets
The Italian Government further integrated the rules applicable to debt restructuring agreements, allowing the debtor to cram down the agreement also to dissenting minority lenders, in two different frameworks: a) stand-still agreements for a “temporary moratorium” pending negotiations, and b) the actual agreements for the rescheduling and restructuring of the outstanding debt.