Royal Decree-Law 4/2014, of March 7, on urgent measures for refinancing and restructuring corporate debt, substantially amends the Insolvency Act (particularly regarding the regulation of refinancing agreements and their court sanctioning, and other pre-insolvency institutions). It also modifies the exemption on mandatory takeover bids for rescue operations and extends for one more year (and broadens the scope of) the special regime for calculating loss based on impairment in cases of mandatory capital reduction and mandatory dissolution of companies.
These resolutions clarify the circumstances in which an appraisal certificate is required to create and amend mortgages following the reform of the Rules of Civil Law Procedure under Act 1/2013.
The Madrid and Barcelona Provincial Courts took different positions on the classification of a creditor’s credit in the insolvency of the joint and several guarantor: the former classed it as an insolvency credit; the latter classed it as a contingent claim.
These regulations contain two provisions clarifying the regime applicable to SAREB (Company Managing the Assets derived from the Banking Restructuring) in its capacity as creditor in insolvency proceedings.
In 2011, the Spanish legislator introduced the court-sanctioned refinancing agreement (‘Spanish Scheme’) in the Spanish insolvency system. While the introduction of the Spanish Scheme has been praised for providing new tools for debtors to reorganise out-of-court while addressing the collective action problem, certain of its provisions have made this instrument too rigid and, thus, ineffective for tackling Spanish restructurings.
Act 14/2013, of September 27, 2013, favoring entrepreneurs and their internationalization (the “Act”), introduces a wide range of reforms on insolvency, corporate, tax and labor matters. Regarding insolvencies, it takes a more flexible approach to the quorum of financial creditors required for court-sanctioned refinancing agreements and it regulates out-of-court agree-ments for payment as mechanisms for out-of-court negotiation with creditors.
REFINANCING AGREEMENTS
I ARTICLE 233(5) OF THE CODE OF INSOLVENCY AND RECOVERY OF COMPANIES
The Supreme Court rescinded a payment made to the creditor that petitioned for compulsory insolvency in a case where the creditor withdrew its petition and the debtor applied for voluntary bankruptcy several weeks later.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court made the following significant assertions in respect of insolvency rescission of payments:
La apreciación de mala fe a efectos de subordinación del crédito de la contraparte a la restitución en caso de rescisión exige, además de conocer la situación de insolvencia o proximidad a la insolvencia del deudor, la concurrencia de un aspecto subjetivo (conciencia de que se afecta negativamente –perjuicio- a los demás acreedores) y de un aspecto objetivo (valorativo de la conducta del acreedor, consistente en que esta sea merecedora de la repulsa ética en el tráfico jurídico).
1. BACKGROUND