El tribunal ha dictado un auto que se detiene sobre determinadas prácticas que se han producido en las subastas extrajudiciales de algunos procesos de liquidación. Concretamente, descarta la posibilidad de cobrar una comisión cuando el adjudicatario en la subasta es el propio acreedor con privilegio especial.

The appeal court has issued a decision which constitutes a reminder to be careful in relation to practices that have been occurring in certain out-of-court auctions within liquidation proceedings. Particularly, it rejects the possibility that a commission fee is collected when the winning bidder is the secured creditor whose security interest levies the asset sold.

It has long been the law that creditors are rarely entitled to contractually prohibit a debtor from filing for bankruptcy, whether such restriction is contained in the debt instruments or in the corporate governance documents. In contrast, governance provisions which condition a bankruptcy filing on the vote or consent of certain equity holders that are unaffiliated with any creditor are frequently enforced. Many equity sponsors, for example, wear two hats: they are both shareholders and lenders to their portfolio companies.

In Nortel Networks, Inc., Case No. 09-0138(KG), Doc. No. 18001 (March 8, 2017), the Delaware Bankruptcy Court ruled on the objections of two noteholders who asked the Court to disallow more than $4.4 million of the $8.1 million of the fees sought by counsel to their indenture trustee. Given the detailed rulings announced by the Court, the decision may establish a number of guidelines by which future fee requests made by an indenture trustee’s professionals will be measured.

Matters Handled by the UCC

“The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.”

                             Robert Frost, “The Oven Bird”

In a significant expansion of the potential risk for distressed claims traders, the Delaware bankruptcy court has recently ruled¹ that traders who engage in insider trading may have their claims subordinated to equity, and that traders who amass claims sufficient to block a plan of reorganization owe fiduciary duties to all other creditors and shareholders during plan negotiations.