Promociones Habitat SA, the Spanish residential homebuilder, has completed a €1.45 billion restructuring which was the first refinancing of an existing composition agreement using Spain’s new company rescue laws.

In 2008 Promociones Habitat SA (Habitat)applied for voluntary bankruptcy with accumulated liabilities of 2,840 million euros. Two years later, in 2010, Mercantile Court no. 3 of Barcelona approved the composition agreement with more than 80% adhering to the proposal.

1. A common problem with re financing arrangements homologated (i.e., sanctioned by a court) pursuant to the 4th additional provision of the Spanish Insolvency Act (abbrev. LCon) is becoming apparent of late where the signatories to such an arrangement undertake to open or keep open lines of credit or otherwise provide the debtor with new resources and, once such arrangement has been homologated, funding needs complementary or different to those contained in the homologated refinancing arrangement arise.

First, the court analyses whether the refinancing agreement seeking approval complies with the legal requirements envisaged in Additional Provision 4 LC and confirms this.¹³

Cuatrecasas, Gonrcalves Pereira has advised one of the coordinating institutions on the process for the acquisition of NATRA debt and on the design and implementation of the refinancing, including the execution of a lock-up agreement.

Act 15/2015 regulates voluntary jurisdiction cases processed in the courts, which are legally considered all cases requiring court intervention to protect rights and interests in civil and commercial law matters that do not involve disputes that must be heard in litigation proceedings.

The SC adopts a decision on the inclusion of contractual set-off agreements that document a single financial transaction within the scope of application of Royal Decree-Act 5/2005 and on the insolvency classification of the credits resulting from financial swap, thus settling the disparity of criteria that existed in our lower case law with respect to such matters.

Privilege bestowed on (syndicated) creditors instigating the insolvency proceedings against the debtor

Preamble

Equality among all creditors (the so-called par conditio creditorum) is a basic principle under Spanish insolvency rules. Only specific exceptions envisaged in the Spanish insolvency law allow for a particular creditor to take precedence over others in the recovery of its claims against the debtor.

Generally speaking, the following ranking applies to insolvency claims (excluding predeductible claims):

The amendment to art. 90(1)(6) of the Insolvency Act 22/2003 (abbrev. LCON) by the Public Sector (Legal Regime) Act 40/2015 was welcomed almost enthusiastically by most market agents. It was felt that the inconsistent treatment bestowed on pledges of future claims (hereinafter, ‘PFC’) would finally be a thing of the past. I myself am not altogether convinced that this is the case, being able to envisage more than one way an insolvency judge, averse to this type of security interests, can dampen the aforementioned enthusiasm by way of a not overly absurd interpretation of the new provision.

Con la reforma del artículo 90.1.6.º de la Ley Concursal (LCon) dispuesta por la Ley 40/2015 se generalizó un casi entusiasta clamor entre los operadores del sector. Se consideraba que quedaba definitivamente resuelto el perverso historial con- cursal de las prendas sobre créditos futuros. Yo no lo veo tan claro y puedo imaginarme más de un modo por el que un juez concursal averso a este tipo de garantías puede arruinar aquel entusiasmo por vía de una interpretación no totalmente absurda del precepto nuevo.

Análisis GA&P | Marzo 2016 1 N. de la C.: En las citas literales se ha rectificado en lo posible —sin afectar al sentido— la grafía de ciertos elementos (acentos, mayúsculas, símbolos, abreviaturas, cursivas...) para adecuarlos a las normas tipográficas utilizadas en el resto del texto. 1. Sobre el alcance de la subrogación en las deudas laborales y de la Seguridad Social: totalidad de la deuda o contratos subrogados 1.1.