Novedades concursales y fiscales introducidas por el Real Decreto‑ley 4/2014, de 7 de marzo, por el que se adoptan medidas urgentes en materia de refinanciación y reestructuración de deuda empresarial (B.O.E. de 8 de marzo de 2014)
- The sale of productive units of a company subject to insolvency proceedings has become common practice in the Commercial Courts, especially those of Catalonia, which have the express support of the Directorate General for Industry of the Regional Government of Catalonia.
This procedural solution allows companies to continue as a going concern, ensuring the maintenance of jobs and avoiding the destruction of the business landscape.
In 2011, the Spanish legislator introduced the court-sanctioned refinancing agreement (‘Spanish Scheme’) in the Spanish insolvency system. While the introduction of the Spanish Scheme has been praised for providing new tools for debtors to reorganise out-of-court while addressing the collective action problem, certain of its provisions have made this instrument too rigid and, thus, ineffective for tackling Spanish restructurings.
If severe losses and insolvency occur, the directors’ duty to seek wind -up no longer applies if the company files for insolvency and is declared insolvent. While the composition is being carried out, the duty to seek wind-up and the directors’ resulting liability will not arise.
This ruling clarifies the role of the directors’ corporate duties in the event that legal grounds can be attributed to the company for wind-up due to losses, and the obligation to file for insolvency if the company becomes insolvent.
The Supreme Court reiterates the doctrine in its rulings of February 12 and 19, 2013, although in this case, unlike the above rulings, in which the credits were classified as insolvency credits, it concluded that instalments resulting from one finance lease agreement falling due after the declaration of insolvency are claims against the insolvency estate.
Credits arising under interest rate swap agreements are (i) insolvency credits, as they do not fulfil the requisite of functional synallagma dependent on reciprocal obligations, and (ii) subordinate, because they involve payment of credits arising due to interest.
These regulations contain two provisions clarifying the regime applicable to SAREB (Company Managing the Assets derived from the Banking Restructuring) in its capacity as creditor in insolvency proceedings.
Spain takes its first step towards securing international interests in mobile equipment.
The ruling called for rescission of previously agreed valuations to divide a company’s assets into two portions in a process for total spin-off in favour of two pre-existing companies. One of the beneficiaries was ordered to refund the other beneficiary company (undergoing insolvency proceedings) the excess valuation the former h ad received during the total spin-off.
The Madrid and Barcelona Provincial Courts took different positions on the classification of a creditor’s credit in the insolvency of the joint and several guarantor: the former classed it as an insolvency credit; the latter classed it as a contingent claim.