The judge Fabián Lorenzini, of the Civil and Commercial Court No. 2 of Reconquista, Santa Fe, ordered the intervention of the directory of the agro -export Vicentin for a period of 120 days, with the possibility of extension. The measure was taken in a critical context for the company, which faces a Post -Concursal debt of approximately 30,545 million pesos and difficulties to pay salaries and social loads.
Current directors, Daniel Foschiatti, Carlos Sartor and Estanislao Bougain, were displaced and replaced by Andrés Shocrón and Guillermo Nudemberg, who already acted as veterans in the bankruptcy process.
Among the reasons for the intervention, The judge pointed out the significant increase in the company’s debt and the lack of technical maintenance at the San Lorenzo plant, which compromises the operability on the eve of the 2025 soybean campaign.
Justice intervened Vicentin, wrapped in millionaire debts and labor conflicts
Lorenzini also pointed to the current state of the facilities of the plants that Vicentin possesses. In them, The workers are at very large risk, since the company does not have money to face salaries or social loads. Nor could he launch the mandatory maintenance stop of the San Lorenzo plant, which Now it does not have the basic technical guarantee for the 2025 soy campaign that begins to harvest these days.
“The annual technical stop for operational maintenance of the San Lorenzo plant was not carried out in a timely manner, Being imperative to do so as soon as possible that we are on the eve of the 2025 soy campaign, its full and safe operation being impossible in the current conditions; This maintenance compromises both the port and the boarding terminals and would demand an estimated figure of between 1 and 2 million dollars, which have not been foreseen, nor are they immediately available, “says one of the recitals of Lorenzini’s writing.
In this sense, The substantial increase in post -consal debt since December 2024, the paralysis of industrial operations and the lack of maintenance of manufacturing facilitiesadded to the lack of trust that the company gives to the partners operating there (Viterra, Bunge, ACA) according to the magistrate, puts at risk the operational viability of the company.
These partners, who had agreed with Vicentin Fasón contracts (similar to a rental) within the framework of a Gestada Business Alliance to support their concordatory agreement, “have stopped entering seeds of their property to be processed in the industrialization plants of the bankrupt,” says Lorenzini’s resolution based on the reports of the veterars.
Lorenzini also dictated An anticaugelar measure that prohibits service companies to interrupt the essential supply to plants and Vicentin offices, with the aim of preserving operational continuity.
The company has more than a thousand employees in its workforce. They are waiting for a negotiation for 20% of the total debt that the Santa Fe company maintains with the workers. During the past week, after a generalized stoppage of 3 vicentin plantsthe payment of 80% of a salary debt had been agreed, and it was planned to negotiate the remaining on Tuesday.
The intervention seeks to reorganize the company, which is in preventive competition since 2020, and preserve its assets while defining its commercial future.
Another setback: the Santa Fe court confirmed the nullity according to creditors
Besides, The Supreme Court of Justice of Santa Fe dismissed This Tuesday the extraordinary resource that Vicentin had presented in an attempt for his cause to reach the Supreme Court of the Nation. With this decision, the failure of February 18 is firm, that he had annulled the approval of the bankruptcy agreement between the agro -export and a group of creditors, and the return of the file to a subrogant court is ratified to issue a new sentence.
In their resolution, the provincial judges argued that The federal appeal presented by Vicentin did not meet the requirement of “final or comparable sentence”, required to enable the intervention of the National Court. According to the ruling, the magistrates considered that the grievances raised by the company were based on “mere conjectures” and “hypothetical scenarios”, as the possible bankruptcy, loss of contracts or the closure of plants. As they explained, Vicentin failed to demonstrate that the damages invoked were “Impossible further repair.”
Likewise, the Santa Fe court ruled out that the case configured a situation of “Institutional gravity” that will justify the opening of the federal instance. “The mere mention of the number of actors involved and the position in the market that the company has It is not enough to have the cause of exception for more configured “the judges affirmed, throwing one of the main arguments of the bankrupt.
This new judicial setback implies that the February judgment – which had made the appeal of unconstitutionality presented by the creditor Commodities sa- is definitely firm. In that failure, The Court had severely questioned several aspects of the agreement with creditorshighlighting the unequal treatment between them, the lack of adequate categorization of the credits, and an alleged arbitrariness in the valuation of the recovery percentages offered.
With this panorama, the file returns to zero. The Subrogant Court must now issue a new sentence regarding homologation, in a much more delicate context for the company. The annulment of homologation and lack of new accepted proposals open the door in a concrete way to a Cram Down process, a mechanism provided for in the Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Law (No. 24,522), which allows interested third parties – even competitors or investment funds – to present offers to keep the company and avoid its liquidation.
Vicentin, one of Argentina’s main agro -exporters, entered into crisis at the end of 2019 after declaring a “financial stress” and ceasing her payments. From there, he faced a succession of judicial claims of local and international creditors, among which public banks such as the National Bank, and companies linked to the agroindustrial sector. In addition, the company was involved in investigations for alleged fraud and emptying of assets, while the National State promoted – without success – an expropriation process in 2020. Today, its future is played between the Cram Down, a possible bankruptcy or an extraordinary agreement that manages to unlock the crisis.
