The Court of Appeals in civil, commercial and labor matters of Reconquista resolved to deny the Unconstitutionality Appeal filed by Commodities SA against the approval of the creditors’ agreement within the framework of the Vicnetin SA bankruptcy, which means leaving the ruling in that sense final. of the Chamber itself.
This last instance in the jurisdiction left to the main actor in the opposition to the agreement that allows the company to remain active, had been discouraged by prosecutor Miguel Molinari in mid-May. With the signature of judges Santiago Dalla Fontana and Mauricio Sánchez -Alejandro Roman abstained- the court did not find from the challenger “a clear and circumstantiated account of the relevant facts” that justified his claim.
The judges rejected the “alleged abusiveness of the bankruptcy proposal because they consider that it generates a reduction of 80% of their debt” with payments scheduled over 12 years, compared to what they described as better treatment for smaller creditors. The court also clarified that the “uncertainty of cramdown” would not guarantee better treatment for defaulted actors. “The defects of arbitrariness that the appellant tries to attribute to the appeal ruling are not established,” the ruling stated.
It warns that beyond the “mere disagreement” of Commodities with the approval of the agreement, “the acceptance of the appeal would imply the opening of a new ordinary review instance, thus destroying the purpose of this institute and unduly expanding the jurisdiction of the Court, “since the complaints and their insistence on the alleged interpretative error made by this Chamber fail to prove the impairment of the constitutional right invoked.”
Later, the judicial document states that “in coincidence with what was stated by the Chambers Prosecutor, the alleged defects invoked by the appellant do not have sufficient legal framework to clear the extraordinary instance, since in the contested resolution this Body has expressed the reasons that determined his decision, which were known to the convicted person, and their foundations fit within the framework of logical possibilities of legal hermeneutics”.
Although the approval of the agreement no longer has a legal authority that can question or delay it, that does not mean that creditors will begin to collect immediately. For this to happen, Vicentin must reach an agreement with the authorities of Banco Nación, which, as it is an unsecured creditor of the company based in Avellaneda, is negotiating a payment understanding outside the file, with the support of strategic investors. that they will take charge of 95% of the company and that they keep the productive units active: Bunge Argentina, Viterra and the Association of Argentine Cooperatives (ACA)
But furthermore, if this condition is verified – there are negotiations in progress for that purpose – one more chapter of the complex plot depends on Judge Fabian Lorenzini. The magistrate must rule on the “criminal” precautionary measures ordered by judges from Rosario, who analyze the behavior of Vicentin’s former board of directors in the plot that precipitated the default. The company seeks to enforce the jurisprudence according to which the disposition of the assets is the subject of the bankruptcy case, beyond the criminal files.
