Court orders resumption of recovery of 123milhas – 12/16/2023 – Market

The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais ordered the resumption of the judicial recovery process of the companies that make up 123milhas after almost three months of suspension.

The decision was handed down last Friday (15) by judge Alexandre Victor de Carvalho, who determines “the immediate resumption of the judicial recovery of the companies 123 Viagens e Tourism Ltda., Art Viagens e Tourism Ltda. and Novum Investimentos Participações S/A .”

When contacted, the company stated that “so far it has not been notified about the TJMG’s decision, but it has confidence in the resumption of judicial recovery given the regularity attested by the expertise hired by the court.”

The request for judicial recovery of 123 miles was accepted by the 1st Business Court of Belo Horizonte on August 31 when, with debts of R$2.3 billion, the tourism platform requested the suspension of creditor and consumers who went to court after the interruption of services.

But Banco do Brasil, the company’s largest creditor, with R$97.1 million to receive, questioned the judicial recovery, and the process was suspended in September.

BB argued that the companies did not present all the documents necessary for judicial recovery and questioned the appointment of judicial administrators, professionals appointed by the Court to manage the company’s assets and manage creditor complaints, among other functions.

The company argued that administrators did not have sufficient expertise. The bank spoke of “inherent illegalities” in the appointments because it was “judicial recovery with media repercussion, the analysis of qualifications and divergences of hundreds of thousands of creditors, the creation of a large general table of creditors, the survey of real assets and liabilities of debtor companies, among the other duties listed in the law, which require the appointment of a judicial administrator with greater structure, experience and expertise.”

The institution also asked for a reduction in the fees of judicial administrators.

In Friday’s decision, the judge maintains the law firm Paoli Balbino & Barros Sociedade de Advogados as judicial administrator, represented in the case by lawyer Flavia Helena Millard Rosa da Silva.

The judge also replaces other administrators by the multinational KPMG Corporate Finance Ltda and by the substitute labor judge at the TRT (Regional Labor Court) of São Paulo Juliana Ferreira de Moraes.

Each of the three appointed administrators will receive 0.5% of the value of the case as fees, determined the judge. Initially, administrators would receive 4%, which was considered by the judge to be “excessively burdensome” for companies undergoing recovery. “Although the value has been set within the legal parameters, its maintenance will create greater difficulty in raising debtors and possible unfeasibility of receiving amounts from the numerous creditors already qualified (more than 700 thousand).”

“The resumption of the recovery request after the experts’ positive judgment cannot be delayed, under penalty of frustration of the recovery request itself, notably given the dynamism that involves relations in the tourism market”, argued the judge.