Creditor asks Spain's Nozar be put in administration
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 @ 9:39 AM
MADRID, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A creditor of Spain's Nozar has asked a judge to put the privately held property company into administration, court documents showed on Tuesday, a move that would lead to Spain's second biggest corporate default.
Last year creditor Avalatransa twice asked the courts to put Nozar into administration over unpaid debts, which in total exceed 4 billion euros, but both attempts were unsuccessful.
Nozar, owned by the Nozaleda family, has five days to respond to Avalatransa's filing.
A spokesman Nozar was not immediately available for comment.
If the company is put into administration, it would represent Spain's second biggest corporate default behind fellow property firm Martinsa Fadesa (MFAD.MC), which declared itself insolvent last summer with debts of 5.1 billion euros.
A judge is studying the request which has so far not been acted upon, papers from the Madrid commercial court said.
Spanish property firms and builders are forecast to go bust at a record rate this year as the global recession compounds the abrupt end of Spain's decade long housing bonanza, and because banks are unwilling to lend, to the shaken property sector in particular.
Nozar has stakes in other troubled Spanish property companies Colonial (COL.MC) and Afirma (AFRA.MC).
(Reporting by Carlos Ruano; writing by Ben Harding; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)