Key Benefits:
Sanctioned: January 30, 2002.
Partially promulgated: February 14, 2002.
The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation assembled in Congress, etc. sanction with force of Law:
CHAPTER I
EMERGENCY
ARTICLE 1 Decline the productive and credit emergency caused by the crisis situation in the country, until 10 December 2003. The amendments to the laws mentioned herein shall govern the duration of the emergency unless a lesser period is established, without prejudice to the fulfilment and maintenance of the corresponding effects of the acts perfected for the purpose of its operation.CHAPTER II
DEUDORES IN CONCOURSE
PREVENTIVE
ARTICLE 2 Amend article 43 of Law 24.522 to read as follows:Article 43: Period of Exclusivity. Proposals for Agreement. Within one hundred and eighty (180) days, since the decision provided for in the previous article is notified by the Ministry of the Law, or within the longer period specified by the judge on the basis of the number of creditors or categories which may not exceed one hundred and eighty (180) days of the established regular period, the debtor shall enjoy a period of exclusivity to formulate proposals for a preventive agreement by category to its creditors and obtain from them the conformity under the regime provided for in the rule of 45. Proposals may consist of either removal or waiting or both; surrender of assets to creditors; establishment of a corporation with the creditors, in which they have the capacity of partners; reorganization of the debtor society; administration of all or part of the assets in the interest of the creditors; issuance of negotiable obligations or musttures; issuance of bonds convertible into shares; establishment of guarantees on third-party assets; assignment of shares of other enterprises;
Proposals should contain equal clauses for creditors within each category, and may differ between them. The debtor may make more than one proposal in respect of each category, among which the creditors within them may choose. The creditor must choose at the time of its accession to the proposal.
Proposals could not be a benefit dependent on the will of the debtor.
When it does not consist of a removal or wait, it must express the way and time in which the foreign currency debts that exist will be definitively calculated, in relation to the benefits that are stipulated.
Privileged creditors that expressly renounce the privilege must fall within a category of creditors. Renunciation cannot be less than thirty percent of your credit. For this purpose, the privilege that comes from the employment relationship is remissible, having to be ratified in court before the judge of the contest, with subpoena to the legitimate association of trade unions. If the worker is not reached by the collective agreement regime, the summons of the union will not be necessary. The waiver of the labour privilege may not be less than twenty per cent of the credit, and the labour creditors that have renounced their privilege shall be incorporated into the category of labour penholders in the amount of the credit to which they have waived. The privilege to be waived by the worker who has voted the agreement favorably reborn in the event of subsequent bankruptcy originating in the absence of a preventive agreement, or in the event that the agreement is not approved.
The debtor must make public his proposal by presenting the same in the file with a anticipation not less than twenty (20) days after the expiration of the period of exclusivity. If he doesn't, he'll be bankrupt.
The debtor may make changes to his original proposal until the time of the briefing board provided for in article 45 of the penultimate paragraph.
Article 3 Amend article 49 of Law 24.522 to read as follows:Article 49. . Existence of agreement. Within three (3) days of the submission of the corresponding conformitys by the debtor, within the period of exclusivity, the judge shall issue a ruling, making known the existence of a preventive agreement.
ARTICLE 4 Amend article 50, paragraph 5, of Law 24.522, which reads as follows:Non-observance of essential forms for the conclusion of the agreement. This case may only be invoked by creditors that have not submitted pursuant to the debtor ' s proposals.
ARTICLE 5o Amend article 51 of Law 24.522 to read as follows:Rule 51. . Resolution. The challenge, if the judge considers it appropriate, must be declared bankrupt in the ruling of the court.
If it judges it improper, it must proceed to the approval of the preventive agreement.
Both decisions are appealable, to the only devolutionary effect, in the first case by the contestant and in the second by the contesting creditor.
ARTICLE 6 Amend article 53 of Law 24.522, which reads as follows:Article 53. . Performance measures. The resolution that approved the agreement should provide for the judicial measures necessary for its implementation. If it were the reorganization of the debtor society, or the establishment of companies with the creditors, or with any of them, the judge should have the measures leading to their formalization and set the time limit for their execution, except as provided for in the agreement.
ARTICLE 7 Amend article 55 of Law 24.522, which reads as follows:Article 55. . Novation. In all cases, the approved agreement imports the novation of all obligations with origin or cause prior to the contest. This novation does not cause the extinction of the obligations of the trustee or the bondholders, who will be bound only in the extension of the new obligation born of the approved agreement.
ARTICLE 8 From the validity of this law, the expiration of the so-called period of exclusivity shall be extended in all the concursional processes submitted previously and governed by Law 24.522, for a period not less than one hundred and eighty (180) days counted from the due date or from the last extension granted by the Competition Judge.Please suspend any kind of guarantees of financial obligations that in any way permit the transfer of control of the contested companies or their subsidiaries from the time of the present and the period provided for in article 1 of this Act.
Article 9 Replace for the period of one hundred and eighty (180) days from the validity of this law in the preventive examinations, all judicial and extrajudicial executions, including foreclosures and foreclosures of any origin, as well as those provided for in Act No. 24,441, article 39 of Decree-Law 15,348, Act No. 9,643, as amended by Act No. 24,486, and article 24,542. ARTICLE 10. In cases of judicial or extrajudicial agreements approved in the terms of Law 24.522, the time limit for the fulfilment of the obligations assumed by the debtor, and without prejudice to the provisions of Chapter III shall be extended by one (1) year after the obligations approved in the agreement are enforceable. ARTICLE 11. . Stay for the hundred and eighty (180) days the processing of bankruptcy orders, leaving the possibility of applying the measures of Article 85 of Law 24.522. ARTICLE 12. Access to credit. The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic shall regulate the elimination of any restriction which in any way prevents, obstructs or denies access to the credit of the natural and/or legal persons in question. The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic will implement a rediscounting line for the financial entities that assist the contested companies that are at the stage provided for in article 43 of Law 24.522, which has the effect of ensuring access to credits and sufficient guarantees to make a proposal according to their creditors that is considered reasonable and viable by the banking entity to which credit assistance is located.Concursed companies and those in bankruptcy with business continuity may freely engage with the national State provided that they meet the conditions required by the latter.
ARTICLE 13. Incorporate as the last paragraphs of Article 3 of Law 23.898, the following:Special rate. In the concursal processes, the applicable rate will be 0.75% (about seventy-five percent) of the amount of all the verified credits covered by the preventive agreement. However, when that amount exceeds the amount of $100,000, the applicable rate will be 0.25% (about twenty-five percent) over the surplus.
The Federal Public Income Administration shall grant to the concursional processes, on a general basis, plans to pay the rate of justice determined in this law for up to 10 years.
Invite the provinces to establish a decrease in their respective tax regimes with regard to judicial rates in the same direction as here.
ARTICLE 14. Incorporate as the last paragraph of Article 266 of Law 24.522 the following:In the event that the amount of the prudentially estimated asset exceeds the amount of one hundred million pesos ($ 100,000.000), the fees provided for in this article may not exceed 1% of the estimated asset.
CHAPTER III
OF THE DEUDE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR
HIPOTECARIO
ARTICLE 15. Financial entities governed by Law 21.526 and complementary shall enjoy a period of ninety (90) days for rescheduling existing acrecies as at 30 November 2001 to maintain with the debtors of the system through an agreement with each of them, held within the framework of the provisions of Law 25.561.The restructuring should include the terms of removal, waiting, rate and other conditions that are reasonable to the new exchange conditions and the flow of funds from individuals or legal entities.
If, at the end of that period, the reprogramming indicated has not been agreed, the financial entity must provide 100 per cent (100%) of the debtor ' s credit.As to the guarantees granted by the Mutual Guarantee Companies (Act 24.467) and/or guarantees funds, they may not be executed while the emergency lasts.
For the purpose of brokering agreement, the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies and/or warranty funds resume their obligations in a subsidiary manner and in the same terms of the agreement to which the debtor had reached.
ARTICLE 16. . Sustain for the period of one hundred and eighty (180) days counted from the validity of the present, all judicial or extrajudicial executions, including foreclosures and foreclosures of any origin, including those provided for in Law 24.441 and Article 39 of Decree-Law 15.348 and those covered by Law 9.643 as amended by Law 24.486. Except for this provision the provisions of a food nature and the derivatives of liability for the commission of criminal offences, the labour receivables, those that do not relapse on the debtor ' s housing or other property affected by the debtor to the production, trade or provision of services, the derivatives of civil liability and against the insurance companies, the obligations arising after the entry into force of this law and the cases in which the bankruptcy judgement has begun.Replace for the period of one hundred and eighty (180) days the precautionary measures impeded and for the same time limit the new precautionary measures on those assets that are indispensable for the continuity of the activities related to the habitual turn of the debtor. Please also suspend for the same period the executions and precautionary measures referred to in article 92 of Act No. 11.683 of article 18 of Act No. 25,239.
All acts of extraordinary disposition of the debtor over his assets shall be void during the period of suspension provided for in this article, unless it has express agreement of the creditors.
ARTICLE 17. 1. Replace the first and second paragraphs of Article 6 of Law 25.561, which shall be drafted as follows: Article 6. . The national executive branch shall have measures to reduce the impact of the modification of the exchange relationship set out in Article 2 of this Law, on debts nominated in US dollars or other foreign currencies, which maintain persons of visible or ideal existence with the financial system or maintain individuals or legal entities among themselves, covered by subparagraphs (a), (b) and (f) of this Article. It will have the necessary rules for their adequacy. (a), (b) and (f) of the present article shall restructure the debts to the financial sector and between individuals or legal entities covered by subparagraphs (a), (b) and (f) of the present article, establishing the relationship of exchange of one peso ($ 1) = one United States dollar ($1) in debts to the financial system and between natural or legal persons covered by subparagraphs (a), (b) and (f) of the present article, of which does not exceed US$ 100,000. As the last paragraph of Article 6 of Law 25.561, the following: Cooperative societies and mutual associations that are affected by the provisions of this rule may receive the same treatment as the financial entities referred to in this article from the national executive branch. ARTICLE 18. As the last paragraph of article 11 of Act No. 25,561 the following text: The cases covered by article 6 are exempt from the provisions of this article.COMPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 19. . Refer to article 28 (c) of Decree 1023/01. ARTICLE 20. . Defrost article 3 (e) of Law 23.898. ARTICLE 21. Article 48 of Act No. 24,522. ARTICLE 22. This law is of public order and will enter into force from its promulgation. ARTICLE 23. Contact the Executive.IN THE SESSION OF THE ARGENTINE CONGRESS, IN GOOD AIRES, TO THE TREAT DAYS OF THE MONTH OF JANUARY YEAR.
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EDUARDO O. CHANGE. . JUAN C. MAQUEDA. . Eduardo D. Rollano. . Juan C. Oyarzún.
NOTE: The bold texts were observed.
