On March 7, the Spanish government reformed its bankruptcy law to encourage companies to restructure their debt and avoid liquidation. The decree is one part of an ongoing reform program intended to strengthen and stabilize the Spanish financial sector.  The reforms provide stronger incentives for lenders to accept write-offs, maturity extensions, and debt forgiveness for struggling companies. The new rules also reduce the majority of creditors needed to vote for a restructuring.

En los acuerdos de refinanciación homologados 1. Según el apartado 2 de la DA 4ª, a los efectos de la presente disposición se entenderá por “valor de la garantía real” de que goce cada acreedor el resultante de deducir, de los nueve décimos del valor razonable del bien sobre el que esté constituida dicha garantía, las deudas pendientes que gocen de garantía preferente sobre el mismo bien, sin que en ningún caso el valor de la garantía pueda ser inferior a cero ni superior al valor del crédito del acreedor correspondiente. Alcance 2.

Aim of the Reform

On March 8, 2014, Spain enacted urgent measures to govern refinancing and restructuring of corporate debt ("RDl 4/2014"), modifying several provisions of the Spanish Insolvency Act (the "Act"). The objective of the reform is to improve the legal framework that governs refinancing agreements to remove obstacles that have previously impeded the successful execution of restructuring and refinancing transactions. 

Principal Amendments

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On March 7, 2014 the Spanish Government approved the Royal Decree Law 4/2014 adopting urgent measures on business debt refinancing and restructuring ("Real Decreto-ley 4/2014, de 7 de marzo, por el que se adoptan medidas urgentes en material de refinanciación y reestructuración de deuda empresarial" or "RDL 4/2014"). The aim of this new regulation is the implementation of legal measures necessary to achieve the viable restructuring of debtors.

Introduction This paper sets out to present a concise description of the amendments to the rules governing Spanish pre-insolvency arrangements pursuant to new Royal Decree Act (Order in Council) 4/2014, of 7 March, adopting urgent measures in relation to refinancing and restructuring of corporate debt (“RDA 4/2014”), in force as from 9 March 2014. This new text has introduced a series of important changes, most of them via amendments to the Spanish Insolvency Act (“SIA”), aimed at easing and expediting preinsolvency debt refinancing and restructuring processes in Spain.

(Auto del Juzgado de lo Mercantil número 1 de San Sebastián, de 19 de noviembre de 2013).

Este auto afirma la competencia del Juzgado de lo mercantil de San Sebastián para declarar la apertura del concurso de la sociedad Fagormastercook SA con domicilio social en Wroclaw (Polonia). La concursada es filial de Fagor Electrodomésticos S. Coop., cuya solicitud de concurso había tenido entrada en el mismo juzgado, si bien en la fecha del auto estaba pendiente de declaración.

1. The sale of productive units of a company subject to insolvency proceedings has become common practice in the Commercial Courts, especially those of Catalonia, which have the express support of the Directorate General for Industry of the Regional Government of Catalonia.

This procedural solution allows companies to continue as a going concern, ensuring the maintenance of jobs and avoiding the destruction of the business landscape.

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.

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.