Background information

The Law 16/2012, of 20 April set up the special revitalisation process (Processo Especial de Revitalisação - PER), amending the Insolvency and Business Recovery Code (Código da Insolvência e da Recuperação de Empresas, approved by Decree-Law 53/2004, of 18 March). It allow to comply with the goal established in the Memorandum between Portugal and the Troika with a view to creating a swift and effective means of revitalising companies and individuals in difficult financial situations or facing imminent insolvency, rather than liquidating their assets from the outset.

Content of measure

The PER is part of the Revitalisation Programme (Programa Revitalizar) and is an alternative judicial instrument to insolvency, which gives companies in difficulty and/or facing imminent insolvency the possibility to negotiate with their creditors, leading to the revitalisation of their activity. Therefore, this does not apply to companies declared insolvent by a court of law, or after opening of insolvency proceedings. 

The instrument protects the productive capacity of the company and the jobs, by maintaining activity and providing for a suspension of creditors' debt recoveries during the negotiation process. The recovery plan is made viable by creditors.

However, all applicants must prove that they also meet certain conditions which will enable their economic recovery. More in detail, creditors must be provided with all the information needed to confirm the company's economic and financial viability, as well as the ability to comply with the restructuring agreement.

The recovery plan is considered approved if (Decree-Law 53/2004 of 18 March, article 17F):

• It is voted by creditors whose claims represent at least 1/3 of the total claims related to voting rights included in the list of credits referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 of article 17D;
• It collects also the favourable vote of more than 2/3 of all votes issued and more than half of the votes corresponding to non-subordinated credits, excluding abstentions; or
• There is a favourable vote of creditors whose claims represent more than half of all claims relating to the right to vote, in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph and more than half of votes corresponding to non-subordinated credits, excluding abstentions.

The PER can be applied to all kind of business entities, with the exception of:

• public entities;
• insurance companies;
• credit institutions;
• financial companies;
• investment firms and collective investment undertakings.

Use of measure

According to statistics of the Directorate General for Justice Policy (Direção-Geral da Política de Justiça - DGPJ), in the first quarter of 2022, the number of applications for the Special Revitalisation Process (PER) increase of 47% compared with the same period of 2021 but a 25% decrease compared with 2019. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 156 of these cases were pending (about 8.3% more than in the first quarter of 2020 and less 21% than in the same period in 2019).

Additionally, data from the Informa D&B barometer shows that by the end of the third quarter of 2022 36,323 new companies were constituted in Portugal, 5,205 more than in the same period of 2021, which corresponds to a growth of 17%. Among the sectors with the highest growth in the creation of new companies, Transport (+129%), Information and Communication Technologies (+29%), General Services (+25%) and Accommodation (+25%) and Catering (23%). Compared to the period before the pandemic (2019), the creation of new companies is still 5% below. Only the sectors of Information and Communication Technologies (+29%), Real Estate Activities (+20%) and Business Services (+2%) already exceed 2019. Between the beginning of January and the end of September of 2022, 8,826 companies closed down, which corresponds to 50 fewer closures than the same period in 2021 and to a negative variation of -0.6%.

In the same period, 1,211 new insolvency proceedings were registered, a figure that represents a 20% decrease compared to the same period last year, maintaining a trend that has been observed for almost a year and a half.

The Transport sector, which is the one with the highest growth in the creation of new companies, is the only one to register an increase in the number of insolvencies, with 11 more new cases in 2022.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment		Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 18 March 2004: Decree-Law 53/2004 of 18 March (dre.pt)
• 20 April 2012: Law 16/2012 of 20 April (www.dre.pt)
• 29 July 2022: Statistics of Directorate General for Justice Policy (Direção-Geral da Política de Justiça - DGPJ) (www.pgdlisboa.pt)
• 10 October 2022: Barometer InformaB&D 2022 (www.pgdlisboa.pt)
• 12 October 2022: Racius (2022), Companies in insolvency, online database (www.racius.com)