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On October 1, 2014, the Official Gazette of the Spanish State (“BOE”) published Act 17/2014, on urgent measures for refinancing and restructuring corporate debt (“Act 17/2014”).  This  act  arises  from  Royal  Decree-Law  4/2014,  of March 73 (“Royal Decree-Law 4/2014”), which was approved by the Spanish Congress of Deputies and subsequently processed as a draft bill through the urgent procedure.

When an composition agreement is terminated due to  non-fulfillment and the disappearance is declared of its effects over the credits, the affected credits will be recognized for their original amount, and the definitive texts will include the fraction pending of payment, even if the resulting amount after applying the debt relief agreed has been paid in full

Royal Decree-Law 11/2014, of September 5, on urgent measures in insolvency matters, introduces important reforms into the Insolvency Act regarding composition agreements and insolvency liquidation to facilitate the continuity of financially viable companies.

The remaining credit after the cancelation of its guarantee through an assignment in lieu of payment (dación en pago) in favor of a creditor with a lower-ranking guarantee is an ordinary credit and cannot be subject to a new classification

The insolvency administration is authorized to sell the production unit of the insolvent company Antibióticos, S.A.U. to Black Toro Capital S.A.R.L.

In the Schmid case the European Court of Justice ruled on the issue of jurisdiction of the Courts of a Member State ofthe EU where an insolvency procedure was commenced, whose receiver started a claw-back action against a defendantdomiciled in a non-Member State

The Case

The Tribunal of Milan with a decision of 12 June 2014 took a stand which is in sharp contrast with mainstreamcase-law, with respect to clauses – widely used as common practice in distressed assets deals as part of“concordato preventivo” restructurings based on an interim lease of business period while the insolvencyproceeding is pending – allowing the lessee to apply rental fee payments to the final purchase price of the business,once the “concordato” is confirmed and the sale can take place

Judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice of 1 July 2014 

This judgment concludes that the Insolvency Plan is an alternative corporate recovery  measure which aims to satisfy the interests of the creditors, which applies  indiscriminately to natural and to legal persons. When the insolvent is a natural person,  the fact that the liquidation of its assets within the insolvency proceedings took place  without the full payment of the claims, is still not enough to declare the release of the  debtor.

On 27 July 2014, the Regulation (UE) n.º 655/2014, of the European Parliament and of  the Council (the “Regulation”), establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters was  published.