Introduction This paper sets out to present a concise description of the amendments to the rules governing Spanish pre-insolvency arrangements pursuant to new Royal Decree Act (Order in Council) 4/2014, of 7 March, adopting urgent measures in relation to refinancing and restructuring of corporate debt (“RDA 4/2014”), in force as from 9 March 2014. This new text has introduced a series of important changes, most of them via amendments to the Spanish Insolvency Act (“SIA”), aimed at easing and expediting preinsolvency debt refinancing and restructuring processes in Spain.
The Cabinet has approved a Royal Decree Act (Order in Council) establishing urgent measures to expedite and streamline corporate refinancing and debt restructuring processes. In essence, these measures aim at ensuring the survival of companies that, notwithstanding the accumulation of excessive financial burden, are viable from an operational point of view through an orderly and balanced system of agreements with creditors and a wider range of refinancing options.
On 31 December 2013, Banco de Portugal issued instruction no. 32/2013 implementing new rules on the identification and flagging of distress debt financing restructures (“Instruction 32/2013”) and revoking its instruction no.18/2012 on the same matter.
Instruction 32/2013 is applicable to credit institutions and to financial institutions with lending activity as well as branches of credit institutions with head offices outside the EU (“Institutions”).
According to a recent report issued by the American Bankruptcy Institute, there was a 24 percent drop in business bankruptcy filings in the United States last year, resulting in the fewest filings since 2006. The larger corporate filings in 2013 were not the typical “mega” filings of years past. Unlike Lehman, Chrysler, Tribune, MF Global and others, the chapter 11 “mega-cases” filed in 2013 were smaller and less well known in the general business community. Among the more prominent were Cengage Learning, Excel Maritime, and Exide Technologies.
- 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.
A New York bankruptcy court has ruled that certain victims of Bernard Madoff’s highly publicized Ponzi scheme are not entitled to adjust their claims to account for inflation or interest. Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, 496 B.R. 744 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2013). The Madoff Liquidation Trustee brought the motion asking the court to determine that Madoff customers’ “net equity” claims did not include “time-based damages” such as interest and inflation under the Securities Investor Protection Act (“SIPA”).
On March 12, 2009, Gerald Rote and Annalisa Rote loaned $38,000 to their daughter and son-in-law to buy a home. The Rotes took a mortgage on the home but, to avoid the expense of publicly recording the mortgage, they did not immediately record it. Rather, they waited two years, until May 4, 2011, to record the mortgage. Seven months later, however, the daughter and son-inlaw filed a bankruptcy petition.
(Auto del Juzgado de lo Mercantil número 1 de San Sebastián, de 19 de noviembre de 2013).
Este auto afirma la competencia del Juzgado de lo mercantil de San Sebastián para declarar la apertura del concurso de la sociedad Fagormastercook SA con domicilio social en Wroclaw (Polonia). La concursada es filial de Fagor Electrodomésticos S. Coop., cuya solicitud de concurso había tenido entrada en el mismo juzgado, si bien en la fecha del auto estaba pendiente de declaración.
Act 26/2013, passed on 27 December 2013 and published in the Official Journal of Spain on 28 December 2013 has amended the provisions of the Spanish Insolvency Act (the “SIA”) related to out-of-court restructuring. In particular Act 26/2013 modifies the 4th Additional Disposition of the SIA which allows to, upon certain circumstances, force extensions to dissident financial creditors in Spanish restructurings through the intervention of a Court (hereinafter, the “Court Homologation”).
- La venta de la unidad productiva de las sociedades en concurso ha devenido en la actualidad un fenómeno habitual en los Juzgados Mercantiles, en especial de los de Cataluña que cuentan con el apoyo expreso de la Direcció General d´Industria de la Generalitat de Cataluña.
Esta solución concursal permite continuar con la actividad empresarial, asegura el mantenimiento de los puestos de trabajo y evita la destrucción del tejido empresarial.