A credit institution that is the indirect owner of an insolvent company’s share capital is not a person closely related to the insolvent company, unless it uses an intermediary to avoid that status.

The court ruled to allow the sale of the production unit with assignment to the acquirer of the agreements involving the insolvent companies affected by the transfer of the production unit and necessary for its continuance.

The European Commission recently published a recommendation addressed to Member States on a new approach to rescuing businesses and offering a second chance to honest entrepreneurs. It aims to ensure that viable businesses experiencing financial difficulti es have access to restructuring mechanisms at an early stage to prevent insolvency and maximise overall value for creditors, employees and owners. It also proposes a second chance for honest entrepreneurs involved in insolvency proceedings.

I  FRAMEWORK OF AVAL

Legal Framework of Aval

The aval consists of a personal guarantee of obligations that is typical of debt securities – in particular bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques – and enormously important given how often the same is used in practice in the commercial activity, namely the provision of aval to commercial companies, makers of debt securities.

On March 7, 2014 the Spanish Government approved the Royal Decree Law 4/2014 adopting urgent measures on debt refinancing and restructuring ("Real Decreto-ley 4/2014, de 7 de marzo, por el que se adoptan medidas urgentes en material de refinanciación y reestructuración de deuda empresarial" or "RDL 4/2014").  

Introduction: The Question

Act 22/2003, of July 9 ("Spain's Insolvency Act"), has been recently amended to include a new chapter regulating the so-called "insolvency mediators" and the extrajudicial settlement of payments ("ESP") as a form of negotiating the debts of the entrepreneurs.

The reform has been introduced by Act 14/2013, of September 27, on entrepreneurs and their internationalization (hereinafter, the "

Act

Financial entities. Royal Decree-Law 14/2013, of November 29, on urgent measures to adapt Spanish law to European Union law on the supervision and solvency of financial entities. (BOE 287, November 30, 2013)

European Union law on the supervision and solvency of financial entities (Basel III) has been incorporated into Spanish law.

On March 7, 2014 the Spanish Government approved the Royal Decree Law 4/2014 adopting urgent measures on business debt refinancing and restructuring ("Real Decreto-ley 4/2014, de 7 de marzo, por el que se adoptan medidas urgentes en material de refinanciación y reestructuración de deuda empresarial" or "RDL 4/2014"). The aim of this new regulation is the implementation of legal measures necessary to achieve the viable restructuring of debtors.

Whoever acquires control of a listed company due to a conversion of  debts  into  shares directly attributable to a court-sanctioned refinancing agreement will not have to launch a mandatory bid. This exemption applies automatically without the need for a CNMV evaluation.

INTRODUCTION