The Government pulls State Lawyers to face the wave of companies in bankruptcy with ICO credit

• Bankruptcy proceedings soar 71.5% in November due to the 'cleaning' of zombie companies

The Government has once again modified the

for

it has resorted to the body of

to intervene in the restructuring processes of companies that have debt guaranteed by the State and

, with the aim of

in an organization that does not have enough personnel to face a potential wave of companies with difficulties.

This is how it is recognized

Ge in the

Royal Decree-Law 20/2022

of December 27, which stipulates that "the

integrated into the State Legal Service may

provided for in the Bankruptcy Law in

This intervention may take place (...) in the processing of the approval of the agreement, in particular, to oppose the judicial approval of the agreement;

in the processing of the approval and approval of the special continuation procedure, in particular, to oppose the formation of classes and to challenge the order of approval of the continuation plan;

, in particular, to oppose the formation of classes and to challenge or oppose the approval of the restructuring plan".

This means that the State Attorneys will be in charge of

that are proposed during the bankruptcy (to alleviate or forgive the debt of the company in question with its different creditors) and that may also intervene when there are

either

, when the judge appreciates the existence of

or to intervene subjects who are not plaintiffs or have not been sued, says the rule.

When a company enters into bankruptcy and a restructuring plan is proposed, it must be

- that is, all parties to whom the company owes money.

This procedure, which has been simplified with the new bankruptcy law,

in cases in which part of that debt, contracted with a financial institution, is guaranteed by the ICO, that is, by the public sector.

In these cases,

to this restructuring plan, but the last modification of the norm approved by the Government last week establishes that the bank that has granted this credit will have to issue two separate votes when seeking the agreement: one for the part of the debt not guaranteed -whose loss it assumes and for which it does not need the congratulations of the Treasury- and another by the part backed by the ICO.

To vote in favor of the plan in relation to the guarantee, you will need to have the approval of the Treasury unless the solution is already contemplated among the assumptions provided for in the framework agreements signed with the banks - and provided that they do not mean extending the term of maturity over 8 years or 10 years from when it was signed.

, which has now been introduced as a novelty, searches

and it has been welcomed by lawyers in the sector, although they acknowledge that it will not completely solve the problem because for the rest of the situations the intervention of the Tax Agency will be necessary.

That the Treasury has to intervene implies that it can be delayed

any restructuring process above what is considered normal, hence even

the investor appetite of foreign funds for indebted Spanish companies has decreased

in recent months due to the fear that there will be debt with ICO guarantee on the balance sheet and that will make its restructuring difficult, according to what this medium has already reported.

Contests grow by 21.5%

In

, the number of bankruptcy proceedings amounted to

, which means

with respect to the figure of the previous year, according to the

of

, published this Friday.

By sectors and in absolute terms, in the

the greatest bankruptcy was concentrated with

and a growth of

compared to 2021. It is followed by the activities of the

, with

and an increase of

;

and the

, with

bankruptcy files and a rise in

compared to the previous exercise.

To these figures are added those of

(with 714 competitions) and professional, scientific and technical activities (530).

These five sectors represent more than two thirds of all the contests presented in Spain in 2022 (67.3%).

Despite the fact that the recovery for the year as a whole has remained at 21.5%, according to data from this company, the year-on-year increases in recent months have been very strong, due to the fact that

which exempted companies from the obligation to file bankruptcy and which prevented creditors from requesting necessary bankruptcy in the event of non-payment of debts.

For this reason, after the summer there has been a

, with a peak in the month of

-last month for which there is data from the College of Registrars-, in which the number of bankruptcies was a

to that of the same month of 2021, mainly due to the

zombie company cleanup

who had survived with artificial respiration after the pandemic but were no longer active or active.

For the first months of

, as the aid measures are lifted, the grace periods of the loans guaranteed by the ICO expire, the rise in costs is consolidated and activity slows down, a

and, in particular, in companies that had to resort to public guarantees at the worst moments of the pandemic.

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