Spain on Tuesday approved a year-long extension, until the end of 2022, to restrictions on foreign takeovers of Spanish companies it regards as strategic, Reuters reported. As part of measures to protect Spanish firms in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Madrid imposed a process of authorization for the acquisition by a foreign company of stakes larger than 10% in companies considered to be strategic. The decision to extend the potential veto comes after U.S.
Read more
Barcelona was technically bankrupt when president Joan Laporta took over earlier this year, the club said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Barcelona CEO Ferrán Reverter presented a grim picture of the club’s financial situation while releasing the results from a Deloitte audit that started after Laporta arrived in March following the resignation of former president Josep Bartomeu and his board of directors last year.
Read more
The Commerce Court number 1 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria agreed this week to declare necessary bankruptcy for tourism companies Anfi Sales SL and Anfi Resorts, The Canary News reported. There will be an appeal against that judgement heard before the Provincial Court, although it will not be suspensive; that is to say, it will not impede the judgement. Judge Alberto López Villarrubia accepted the request made last year by the company Isla Marina SL to declare the companies bankrupt.
Spanish airport operator Aena could lose up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.76 billion) of revenues between 2020 and 2025 after Spain passed a law on Thursday pegging retail tenants' rent to air traffic until footfall reaches pre-pandemic levels, Reuters reported. The much-disputed minimum annual guaranteed rents owed to Aena will be reduced in direct proportion to the passenger flow in each local airport, according to the text of the law, and will remain as such until travel returns to 2019 figures.
On Aug. 3, the Council of Ministers finally approved the long-awaited bill for the adaptation of our insolvency legislation to EU Directive 2019/1023 regarding preventive restructuring frameworks, discharge of debt and disqualifications, according to commentary published by The Corner. In addition, measures to increase the efficiency of procedures concerning restructuring, insolvency and discharge of debt. Great hopes had been placed on it because it was thought that it would help to save companies that, although going through a difficult patch, were viable.
Invesco Ltd. and Searchlight Capital Partners LP are lobbying creditors of Mediapro to back a restructuring deal enabling them to take a stake in the producer of top-flight Spanish soccer broadcasts left reeling by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The investment firms sent a restructuring proposal to lenders to Mediapro including Cairn Capital Ltd. and Carlyle Group, on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Read more
Spain’s largest hotel chain Melia Hotels has filed a complaint against the government with an administrative court seeking 116 million euros ($138 million) in damages incurred due to last year’s COVID-19 restrictions, the company said, Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the group said on Wednesday the claim was related to losses suffered as a result of the government-imposed lockdown between mid-March and late June of 2020, confirming a report by the newspaper Expansion.
Spain’s government approved an 11 billion-euro ($13 billion) plan to help companies pay down debts accumulated during the pandemic, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said, Bloomberg reported. The package, which has three parts, will leave companies better poised for the economic recovery, Calvino told journalists during a televised news conference on Friday. The announcement is the latest example of how European governments are accelerating plans to prevent defaults and corporate bankruptcies as businesses struggle to survive extended pandemic restrictions.
Renewable energy group Abengoa SA filed for insolvency late on Monday, after its latest attempt to restructure its debts fell apart, Bloomberg News reported. The parent company of the renewable-energy producer, which is the entity that filed for insolvency, had around 1 billion euros ($1.22 billion) of liabilities in 2019. The group as a whole had 7.9 billion euros in liabilities as of March 31, according to its latest earnings statement.
Read more