The Civil and Commercial Justice of Santa Fe granted this Thursday a new extension to the agro-export company Vicentin, until next June 30, to gather the majorities that require the exit from the bankruptcy.
Parallel to the extension, the judge of the city of Reconquista, Fabián Lorenzini, also advanced in the preparation of the rescue path established by lawin case Vicentin does not obtain the necessary majorities to get out of the creditors’ bankruptcy.
In this way, the magistrate granted the company’s request made in the middle of this month, in which it requested a new term to agree with its creditors, called the period of exclusivity.
The extension came a day after Agro Mills, the signing of the Pérez Companc Group, announced that stop participating in the group of “strategic investors” who seek to keep Vicentinalso made up of Viterra and the Association of Argentine Cooperatives (ACA).
The measure ordered by Judge Lorenzini had the endorsement of the Bankruptcy Trustee, the intervention of some members of the Creditors Committee –among them two foreign banks- and the rejection of Banco Nación.
The resolution states that due to the imminent expiry of the exclusivity periodscheduled for today March 31, “I must anticipate that we will grant the requested extension until 6/30/2022, inspired by the principles of reasonableness, efficiency, protection of the rights of creditors, ubiquity of information and protection of the most vulnerable”.
The judge added that “notwithstanding this, in parallel A schedule will be approved to regulate the Period of Concurrence (salvage or cramdown)subject to the dates that will be established at the pertinent procedural moment”.
The resolution specifies that Vicentin advanced in the search for conformity from its creditors to obtain the majorities required by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, although it has not yet achieved them.
“To date, 680 reports were attached to this file”he says, to detail that “said total universe of creditors is made up of 425 granary creditors, 198 creditors for goods and services, 2 financial creditors, 54 shareholders and 1 company.”
That implies the “equivalent to a capital of $13,537,632,225 and representative of 39.65% of necessary nominal compliances and 13.857% of necessary compliances of the verified capital”.
The resolution states that “the additional period requested by the bankrupt company should not have a negative impact on a successful competition or cramdown scheme whose completion, in any scenario, should not extend beyond the month of April 2023.”
For this purpose, the court established a series of “regulatory guidelines” for the salvage process, such as the preparation of a database with free access to those interested in staying with the company; a registry of bidders; requirements for registration and appointment of an appraiser of Vicentin’s assets.
