Selection of the main judgments on restructuring and insolvency matters.
Silent administrator role allowed in pre-pack sale of business unit
Decision by Barcelona Commercial Court No 7 on October 30, 2020
The decision adopted on October 1, 2020 by commercial judges practicing in Barcelona, Tarragona, Gerona and Lérida states that insolvency receivers, owners or lawyers must report to the Directorate General for Industry of the Catalan Generalitat government regarding any companies with operating business units that have given a pre-insolvency notice, are in insolvency proceedings or other difficult situations
The decision of November 25, 2020, by the Secretary of State for the Economy and Business Support, published the decision by the council of ministers setting out the terms and conditions for the new tranches of the guarantee facilities approved by Royal Decree-Law 25/2020, of July 3, 2020. The new tranches are to be used for funding to businesses under an arrangement and any which, while not under an arrangement, were in the process of reviewing their promissory note program on MARF (Spanish Alternative Bond Market) on April 23, 2020.
La prolongada duración de los efectos de la pandemia COVID-19 sobre el tejido económico empresarial ha impulsado al Gobierno a extender en el tiempo algunas de las medidas en el ámbito de la Administración de Justicia que se habían adoptado en el marco del Real Decreto-Ley 16/2020, de 28 de abril, posteriormente confirmadas en la Ley 3/2020, de 18 de septiembre.
What have we been up to?
The days and nights may well be getting noticeably cooler, but as a team we remain very much at simmer point in terms of the demands of newlyacquired business support and insolvency work and staying on top of recent legislative changes.
Amongst this month's work highlights have been:
Analizamos la Ley 3/2020, de 18 de septiembre, de medidas procesales y organizativas para hacer frente al COVID-19 en el ámbito de la Administración de Justicia para comprobar qué hay nuevo y qué ha cambiado esta nueva regulación respecto a la norma que la precedió, el RDL 16/2020 publicado durante la primera oleada de la pandemia.
As we discussed in our July newsletter, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA 2020) has introduced a new Restructuring Plan, which is similar to existing Schemes of Arrangement. In essence a Court can sanction a restructuring plan which binds a dissenting class of creditors, if that class would be in no worse a position than the most likely alternative.
This was an application by the administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) Ltd for a direction under paragraph 63 of Schedule B1 IA86 that they be at liberty to consent to a request from the company’s directors to distribute surplus funds to the company’s sole shareholder.
The Court has granted one of the first Winding Up Orders under CIGA 2020.
The winding up petition had been issued on 1 May 2020, 8 weeks before CIGA 2020 came in to force, but after 27 April 2020, the date from which CIGA 2020 applies retrospectively. As a result, the petitioner could not have ensured that the winding up petition satisfied the requirements of CIGA 2020, as those requirements were not in existence at the time that the petition was presented.
The liquidators of a subsidiary company had submitted a proof in the CVA of the parent company. The proof was based upon a claim under section 239 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA86) that certain payments by the parent to the subsidiary had amounted to unlawful preferences of the company. The liquidators appealed against the decision by the supervisor of the CVA to reject that proof.