Spain overhauled bankruptcy rules to make it easier for troubled companies to avoid liquidation as the economy recovers from a five-year slump, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The decree will make it easier to get agreements on write-offs, maturity extensions and debt-for-equity swaps and reduces the majority needed for creditor agreements to be approved, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after the weekly cabinet meeting. Individual creditors will be able to agree to refinancing during preliminary bankruptcy proceedings. Almost two years after Spain bailed out its financial system and set up bad bank Sareb to absorb toxic real-estate assets, officials are tackling rules that mean about 95 percent of companies that start insolvency proceedings end up in liquidation. A record 8,716 Spanish companies sought creditor protection last year, up 20 percent from the year before, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP report.
