En las insolvencias internacionales (las que en función de las circunstancias de registro, patrimoniales y contractuales del deudor y sus acreedores implican a dos o más jurisdicciones), entra en juego el concepto de centro de los intereses principales, que aparece en el art. 10.1 de la Ley Concursal, inspirada por el art. 3 del Reglamento (CE) No 1346/2000 de 29 de mayo de 2000 sobre procedimientos de insolvencia.
El punto de debate suele estar en las circunstancias que permiten a un Tribunal, frente a la presunción a favor del domicilio social (arts. 9 y 10 de la Ley de Sociedades de Capital), entender que el centro de los intereses principales se encuentra en otro lugar. Al respecto, a pesar de que han pasado algunos meses desde su adopción, me permito recoger los argumentos que, plasmados en Sweet Maxwell (“Recent Cases Round-UP”, Company Law Newsletter nº 290, de 23 de febrero de 2011, pp. 6 y 7), sirvieron para afirmar que una compañía holandés tenía su centro en Londres y no en su domicilio social en Holanda:
“Two of the directors were based in London and the decisions were made from its London office, which had become its head office and its contact address on its website. The directors did not operate from any office in the Netherlands. The majority of creditors were based in England. The senior facilities agreement had an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of England. All the secondary debt was traded on the London secondary debt market. Since the onset of financial difficulties, London was the centre of the discussions as to the proposed restructuring, meetings between the company and its creditors had been held there and the majority of the company’s advisers were there. It had a London bank account, the signatory of which was based at its London office. The company had written to senior creditors confirming that its COMI was in England”.
Las circunstancias expuestas llevaron al Juez británico a afirmar su competencia y a otorgar la orden de administración judicial solicitada por la propia sociedad holandesa.
Madrid, 20 de junio de 2011
