INTRODUCTION

Spanish Royal Decree-Law 4/2014, passed on March 7 2014, has considerably changed the rules for the court-sanctioning of so-called Spanish schemes of arrangement. Amongst those changes, the reform has lowered the majorities required to achieve a Spanish scheme. Currently, a majority of at least 51% of the financial liabilities held by all creditors at the time of the refinancing agreement (acuerdo de refinanciación) approval, will suffice to request the insolvency judge to sanction the agreement, so it is considered ringfenced and protected from any challenge for rescission.

Financial institutions are not de facto directors of the insolvent company because they do not significantly affect the performance of the insolvent company’s activity, but only ensure that  certain costs do not affect the repayment of their loan.

For insolvency purposes, the concept of “group” is defined in article 42 of the Spanish Commercial Code, which refers only to groups subject to control that have the legal obligation to consolidate their accounts, while excluding horizontal or co-ordinated groups.³

Assignment of a credit with recourse transfers ownership of the credit to the assignee when the transfer is approved and allows the assignee to request that it is separated from the assignor’s insolvency assets.

In both rulings, the Supreme Court stated the effects of assignment of a credit with recourse on the assignor’s declaration of insolvency.

Royal decree-law 4/2014, on urgent measures for refinancing and restructuring corporate debt: amends the Insolvency Act and the exemption on mandatory takeover bids for rescue operations, and extends the special regime for calculating losses due tue impairment

On March 18, 2014, the Bank of Spain gave credit institutions consistent criteria to apply the provisions of Circular 4/2004 to restructuring transactions resulting from the refinancing agreements regulated under the Insolvency Act, complying with the stipulations of Additional Provision One of Royal Decree Law 4/2014, which assigned the drafting of those criteria to the Bank of Spain.

Madrid Commercial Court No. 6 order of October 7, 2013: acquirer of a production unit subrogated in employment liabilities because the shareholders and directors had established the company specifically to acquire the insolvent company ("Marco Aldany Case")

The court did not rule out liability for employment obligations because the partners - directors of the insolvent company wished to acquire the production unit through a company created specifically to acquire it.

The fumus boni iuris used to justify the adoption of interim measures, involving blocking the enforcement of a financial guarantee, was counteracted since the pledge was fully enforceable under Luxembourg law, which was the governing law.

The parties had agreed to institute a financial guarantee on certain shares owned by the insolvent company and the pledge was made subject to Luxembourg law, because the account where the shares were deposited was located in Luxembourg.

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.