Disagreement Between Tax Authorities And 4 Top Banks Over Nozar’s Future

10 March 2015 – Expansión

Two camps have been established in the lengthy bankruptcy process involving the real estate company Nozar. The company, which operates food and hotel companies, in addition to its real estate business, is awaiting the court’s decision as to whether to accept or reject the proposed agreement presented at the end of last year.

This proposal has the support of 30 creditors, which together hold 73.73% of the senior loans and almost 70% of the ordinary loans. The creditors include entities such as Bankia, Banco Sabadell and Hypothekenbank, as well as companies such as Colonial and the Tax Authorities.

Nevertheless, another four financial creditors (BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander), together with Nozar’s bankruptcy administrators, have expressed their opposition to the proposal. Barclays has decided to abstain.

The confrontation between Nozar and the two bankruptcy administrators has led the company to file a criminal complaint against them. In turn, the administrators, together with the four Spanish banks, are calling for the liquidation (of the company).

The origin of this confrontation stems from a series of agreements that Nozar reached with its creditor banks before it filed for bankruptcy and which caused it to reduce its debt from €3,500 million to around €1,500 million. The bankruptcy administrators estimate that these financial creditors should return around €110 million to Nozar through rescissory actions. Nevertheless, the administrators abandoned the recovery of around €62 million.

Instead, Nozar understands that this figure is much higher and that BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander should repay €500 million that was (previously) distributed to the creditors. Therefore, the bankruptcy administrator of Dimora Gestión, the company created by Nozar, which is in turn a creditor, has claimed €479.4 million from these entities.

The Tax Authorities, which are owed €200 million, claim the payment of VAT on these rescissory actions; a payment that has been postponed by many real estate companies during the crisis. The creditors that have signed up to the bankruptcy agreement support the formula that once the €500 million from the rescissory actions has been repaid, then €50 million should be paid to the Tax Authorities and the asset shall be distributed based on the debt held by each one.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake