With judgment No. 5945 of 11 March 2013, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation addressed a key issue under EC Regulation No. 1346/2000: the location of the “center of main interests” (COMI) of the company according to factors recognizable by third parties.
The Case
The Court of Milan with a decision on 28 May 2014 addressed some heavily debated legal issues: the Bankruptcy Courtmay authorize the debtor to terminate credit facility agreements when the debtor submitted a pre-filing for concordato preventivo (known as “concordato con riserva”)?
The Case
The procedure of composition with creditors aimed at business continuity (“concordato preventivo con continuità aziendale”, provided by art. 186-bis of the Bankruptcy Law) has a major impact on the rules governing public contracts, above all with reference to the requirements requested both for the participation of economic operators in the public tender procedures and for their capacity to enter into agreements with public entities.
The Court of Prato (30 April 2017) confirms that the concordato filing stays (and does not instead terminate) pending enforcement actions by individual creditors and clarifies that the term for the creditor to restart the proceeding runs from the decision of the Court concluding the concordato
Law No. 232 of 11 December 2016 (Budget Law for 2017), in force since 1st January 2017, amended Art. 182-ter of the Italian Bankruptcy Law by repealing the tax consolidation rule and setting aside the interpretation that the tax settlement thereby provided could be chosen as an alternative to a proposal to tax and social security agencies, based on ordinary rules
The tax settlement before Law No. 232 of 2016
The Court of Modena (8 February 2016) challenged precedents of the Court of Cassation ruling thatdelayed payment of secured creditors is allowed only if the timing would not be shorter in bankruptcyliquidation
The case
The Tribunal of Monza (12 October 2015) has adopted a broad application of second para. of Art. 56 of the Italian Bankruptcy Law which excludes – only for receivables non yet overdue – that a debtor of the insolvent may offset its debt against receivables which he has acquired after the declaration of bankruptcy or in the year before.
The case
Creditors being now allowed to make competing concordato proposals restricts the exclusive powers of the debtor, which are now limited to the choice to commence the procedure, while on the other side it is now always mandatory that a competitive bid process is carried on for the sale of business units and assets, when the proposal of the debtor provides for an already designated buyer
Concordato competing proposals by creditors
On 27 July 2017 Law-Decree No. 99 of 25 June 2017 has been converted into law, which established special rules applicable to the «liquidazione coatta amministrativa»procedure, as well as the sale of the banking business units including assets and liabilities of the two banks, with the financial support by the Italian State. Nctm assisted Bank of Italy, the Ministry of Economy and the Liquidation Commissioners in the sale to Banca Intesa.
With the judgment No. 25162 of 7 December 2016 the Court of Cassation refers the expression set forth in Art. 67, third paragraph, a) of the Italian Bankruptcy Law to the custom between the parties of the specific commercial relationship and not to the wider use of trade
The case
An insolvency receiver sued a former supplier of the bankrupt company, requesting the claw-back of payments made by the company.