J. Vilaseca, a historic manufacturer of high-end special papers, has restructured 29 million of its debt through a plan approved by commercial court number 10 of Barcelona.
The plan contemplates a reduction of 70% of ordinary credit, the return of the remaining 30% within a period of ten years, a reduction of 100% of subordinated credit and the maintenance of privileged credits (mainly mortgages). Apart from this plan, the company is negotiating the return of public credits to the CDTI and ICF organizations worth more than 1 million euros. In addition, the ICF has committed to contributing half a million euros to promote the new stage.
The plan will give oxygen to the company, founded in 1714 and specialized in the production of special papers, such as lottery tickets, passports or bank checks. The company, which was historically controlled by the Torredemer family, was taken over by the company Sarbon Atlantic in 2019 after another debt restructuring. This company, chaired by Juan Pich Aguilera Roca, and controlled by other businessmen, has the majority of J. Vilaseca while the rest is distributed between the former partners and the public company Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre. With a production plant in the municipality of Capellades, J. Vilaseca employs 200 people and has a turnover of 58 million euros.
Alicia Herrador, partner of the Augusta Abogados firm who has represented the company, explains that J. Vilaseca has been forced to restructure its debt “due to the rise in the price of gas after the war in Ukraine and the application of the Iberian exception of the Government, which limited the sale price of electricity, but excluded industrial cogenerations, an activity that J. Vilaseca carried out through a subsidiary that, for this reason, filed for bankruptcy with a debt of 11 million ”.
Herrador, who has led the process under the supervision of independent expert Agustí Bou, from the BDO firm, points out that the judicial resolution can be challenged before the Provincial Court. It is likely that some creditors will exercise this right since the plan has been approved with the disagreement of the banks – Santander, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Sabadell and Caixabank – and large companies that provide materials and services. In fact, the plan has been approved with the sole consent of the creditor SMEs – suppliers of pulp, transport and other services – which together have a credit of 2.4 million euros, barely 8% of the liabilities.
This has been possible thanks to the new bankruptcy law, which allows a class of creditors “in the money” – who would have the possibility of collecting in a liquidation scenario – to drag along creditors who are dissatisfied with the restructuring plan. “We were forced to apply this new formula due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the bank,” says Herrador, who adds that this pre-bankruptcy figure allows “companies with difficulties to restructure not only their liabilities towards financial entities, as was the case with the previous regulation. , but practically the entire liability, avoiding the complexity of a bankruptcy.”
