To all insolvency proceedings opened before a court of an EU Member State after 26 June 2017, the Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of 20 May 2015 on Insolvency Proceedings (recast) will be applicable.
As can be read in the media, reorganization proceedings were opened on the assets of the Kärntner Landes- und Hypothekenbank-Holding.
The reason for the application for initiation of reorganization proceedings is the liability by virtue of law of the applicant for all current and future liabilities of the bad bank HETA Asset Resolution AG, universal successor of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG.
The Austrian “Bundesgesetz über Sanierungsmaßnahmen für die HYPO ALPE-ADRIA-BANK INTERNATIONAL AG” (HaaSanG), published on 31 July 2014 in the Austrian Federal Law Gazette and implemented in August 2014 by the Austrian government, paved the way for the establishment of Heta Asset Resolution AG (Heta) as a wind-down vehicle to assume and manage large parts of the assets of the failed Austrian bank, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank international AG (HAA).
The first bank resolution under the new European bank resolution regime is currently taking place in Austria: the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), the official government regulator for banks, funds and financial institutions, is busy with the resolution of HETA Asset Resolution AG (HETA - formerly Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International AG).
Legal Status
In three similar decisions of 17 March 2015[1] the Austrian Supreme Court (“OGH”) clarified how insolvency proceedings may affect an already pending arbitration.
By order of the Commercial Court of Vienna from 30.11.2015, bankruptcy proceedings were opened against the assets of the food chain Zielpunkt GmbH. With liabilities amounting to approximately 237 million euros, the Zielpunkt insolvency is the biggest of 2015. Zielpunkt has 229 branches in total in Austria and employs 2708 employees. The insolvency administrator is trying to sell as many branches as possible. The acquisition of Zielpunkt branches by competitors, as by the two biggest grocers REWE and Spar, however, raises competition law concerns due to the large market share.
Hypo Group Alpe Adria AG, an Austrian banking group, was nationalized by the Austrian government in 2009 in order to avert a bank collapse. The Austrian province of Carinthia owned the bank until 2007 and the guarantees given by Carinthia for the bank’s debt still amount to several times its annual budget, which has made the winding-down process more complicated because sharing the losses with bondholders would lead to significant claims against Carinthia.
The conundrum evolves