Hold was granted the safeguard procedure by the Paris commercial court in November 2008 after a loan default, and subsequently won the court's endorsement for a recovery plan which involved a postponement of its debt repayment from 2012 to 2014 and allowed it to continue managing the complex and collecting rent from tenants. But the creditors argued that the original financing agreement gave them the right to receive the rental payments under a so-called "Dailly" assignment in which the rental income was used to guarantee the debt.

The appeal court has now backed the creditors on the rental payments and also ruled that Hold cannot use the safeguard procedure to keep the creditors at bay. It said safeguard proceedings can only be used if a company is facing difficulties in its core business that it is not able to overcome, whereas Hold was not facing insurmountable difficulties in its core activity of leasing and exploiting the building. The creditors undertook to give Hold the amounts necessary to operate and maintain Coeur Defense.

Lawyers said the court's ruling was a milestone decision that would reassure investors and deter abuse of the safeguard procedure. Hold was the special purpose vehicle set up by Lehman Brothers to control Coeur Defense after the now defunct US bank acquired the 1.9-million-square-foot complex for $2.9 billion at the top of the market in 2007, largely financed by a $2.2 billion securitized loan. The value of the complex fell sharply as markets slumped after Lehman's collapse in September 2008, while rising vacancy rates reduced rental income.