Judgment of the Court of Appeal of Porto of February 15, 2016
Introduction
The British Virgin Islands' reputation as the leading offshore jurisdiction is well earned and it is dedicated to maintaining its status as a creditor-friendly and commercially flexible jurisdiction. The developments of 2015 are the latest example of its evolution as it continues to meet the needs of the global financial community. The following are the key developments to BVI law that are most likely to interest lenders and borrowers.
Introduction
Recently, the British Virgin Islands has seen a trend wherein debtors involved in winding-up proceedings have sought to identify what appear to be spurious disputes and then to rely on arbitration clauses in order to strike out or stay the winding-up proceedings. While this tactic could be regarded as capitalising on the wider global trend towards giving absolute primacy to arbitration agreements, it is often deployed to buy time for debtors and frustrate creditors that are legitimately seeking to wind up insolvent companies.
A credit institution appealed the ruling that approved the agreement claiming that the creditors meeting had allowed the presence and vote by a city council that, in its opinion, did not have such right because it was the holder of 100% of the share capital of the insolvent party.
This ruling resolved an issue originating from a personal and joint and several guarantee granted by two companies to secure the obligations assumed by a Dutch company under a junior financing agreement. In light of the Dutch company's default on one of its payments under that agreement, the creditor companies sued the debtor, and the court issued a resolution ordering the debtor company to pay the amount claimed.
Cuatrecasas, Gonrcalves Pereira has advised GRUPO EMPRESARIAL ALCO on submitting and processing the early composition agreement with the company's creditors, attaining the approval of the competent court within 10 months of the company's declaration of insolvency.
A company's insolvency is requested by three of its creditors whose credits originated from a syndicated financing agreement signed with other credit institutions. The three creditors seeking the insolvency request that they all be recognized a general privilege of 50% of their credits and that the entirety of their respective credits be considered in calculating this general privilege, excluding subordinated credits only.
This ruling resolves the financial creditors' challenge to the approval of a refinancing agreement extending the deferral stipulated and the modification of the margins added to the Euribor to them. As grounds for their opposition, they claim that the 75% majority of the financial liabilities necessary to extend the reduction of the applicable margin whereby, in their opinion, such reduction entailed debt relief was not present.
First, the court analyses whether the refinancing agreement seeking approval complies with the legal requirements envisaged in Additional Provision 4 LC and confirms this.13
Cuatrecasas, Gonrcalves Pereira has advised one of the coordinating institutions on the process for the acquisition of NATRA debt and on the design and implementation of the refinancing, including the execution of a lock-up agreement.