TJ orders the sealing of Maksoud Plaza, collecting furniture and suspending delivery to the new owners

The TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) has temporarily suspended the delivery of the Maksoud Plaza hotel building to the brothers Fernando and Jussara Simões, who won the property in an auction in 2011.

The hotel closed its doors on the morning of December 7, after 42 years of operation. The ad took workers and guests by surprise.

Judge Araldo Telles, from the 2nd Reserved Chamber of Business Law, answered the request of the brothers Claudio and Roberto Maksoud, sons of the hotel’s founder, Henry Maksoud.

The provisional decision, an interlocutory relief, also determined that the building located in an upscale area of ​​the Bela Vista neighborhood, in the central region of São Paulo, be sealed, and that movable property be collected.

Any amounts deposited by the new owners of the building will also have to be made in court, within the judicial recovery process.

The suspension of the transfer to the Simões brothers is valid until January 30, 2022.

According to the judge, the agreement reached when the property was sold in the Labor Court provided that the judicial administrator responsible for managing the hotel would keep the property until April 28, 2022, under a lending regime.

The early delivery would result in an increase of R$ 10 million in the amount paid by Simões for the building (R$ 132 million). This anticipation, however, was scheduled for the end of January, not December. For the judge, this change in date justifies the suspension of the delivery order.

“It is reasonable to respond only in part to the request for interlocutory appeal, with the suspension of the order for delivery of the property to the bidders until January 30, 2022, sufficient time for the lower court judge to consider the debtors’ justifications and decide on the matter,” wrote the judge.

Maksoud is controlled by the engineering company Hidroservice and managed by HM Hotéis. Hidroservice also owns Manaus Hoteis e Turismo and HSBX Bauru Empreendimentos.

Telles also says, in this Friday’s decision, that a brief reading of the approved judicial reorganization plan does not reveal the existence of any other business activity for the building than the hotel, “which, as seen, has ended and is in the dismantling phase “.

The early liquidation of assets and abandonment of the establishment, says the judge, constitute acts of bankruptcy.

In a statement, the companies said that the TJ-SP decision “is putting at risk the entire continuity of the activities of HM Hotels and Hidroservice, such as accounting control, access to systems and the final discharge of workers who will be laid off at the time correct.”

They also affirm that the closing of activities and the delivery of the building were measures taken to accelerate the eviction of the building and make the auction of movable property possible.

At the first instance, the judicial administrator also questioned the closure of activities. Judge João de Oliveira Rodrigues Filho, of the 1st Bankruptcy Court, gave until this Friday for the controllers to explain the feasibility of the judicial recovery plan.

Claudio and Roberto Maksoud, authors of the appeal at the TJ-SP, called for the suspension of “any commitment to deliver the Maksoud Plaza Hotel property” and also for the removal of Henry Maksoud Neto from the position of director, whom they accuse, in the request made to the Court of São Paulo, of having been the one who “orchestrated the closure of business activity on the eve of the forensic recess, without any explanation to the partners or creditors.”

In a statement, lawyer Luciano Godoy, who represents Claudio, said the decision “protects the interests of all those involved in the financial restructuring of the Maksoud Group, especially creditors and heirs of Henry Maksoud’s estate.”

Uirá Machado collaborated