Restructuring · Distress · Crisis · Liquidity
In special situations the scarcest resource is time. We stabilize liquidity, establish what is actually true about the business, and preserve the alternatives that remain available.
Distress rarely arrives suddenly. It accumulates through deferred decisions, optimistic forecasting, and a reluctance to have difficult conversations with lenders while there is still leverage to have them well.
Our restructuring advisory and distressed company advisory work begins with the two things everything else depends on: a reliable view of liquidity, and an honest assessment of which parts of the business are viable.
From there, special situations work is about preserving optionality. Every week without a credible plan removes alternatives, and the difference between a consensual restructuring and a forced outcome is usually the amount of runway remaining when the process starts. Crisis management means acting while choices still exist.
Special situations work follows a strict order. Companies that attempt to restructure before establishing liquidity and viability generally restructure twice.
Crisis management starts with cash. We build a thirteen-week cash flow forecast from receipts and disbursements rather than from the accounting model, establish disbursement controls and payment prioritization, and identify the actual runway available.
In parallel we address the immediate pressure points (vendor terms, payroll obligations, critical supplier relationships, and lender communication) so that the company retains the operating stability required to work on the underlying problem.
Not every part of a distressed business should be preserved. We assess viability at the segment, product, customer, and site level: identifying where contribution is genuinely positive, where losses are structural rather than cyclical, and what the enterprise looks like if the unviable elements are removed.
This assessment is delivered directly. Boards in distress are frequently working from a plan that no longer reflects reality, and the most valuable early contribution is an accurate picture, however unwelcome.
Restructuring advisory covers the operational and financial changes required to return a business to sustainability: cost structure reduction, working capital release, contract and lease renegotiation, footprint rationalization, and the sequencing that makes these achievable within the liquidity available.
On the balance sheet, we model restructuring alternatives (amendments, forbearance, new money, debt for equity, asset sales, or a sale of the enterprise) and compare recovery outcomes across stakeholder classes so that negotiation is grounded in analysis.
Credibility with lenders is the currency of a restructuring, and it is usually depleted by the time we are engaged. We rebuild it through accurate reporting delivered on schedule, forecasts that prove reliable, and communication that raises problems in advance rather than after the fact.
We support negotiation of waivers, amendments, forbearance agreements, and new money facilities, and we manage communication across the stakeholder group: lenders, equity holders, key vendors, and where relevant, customers and employees.
Where a sale is the best available outcome, we prepare and run a process under compressed timelines and with the transparency distressed buyers require, including diligence on issues that would normally be resolved before launch.
Where no viable path exists, we support an orderly wind-down that maximizes recovery and manages obligations responsibly. Recognizing that point early is itself a form of value preservation.
Distressed engagements produce operating instruments immediately, because the analysis is only useful if it arrives while options remain.
A receipts-and-disbursements forecast with weekly variance tracking, establishing true runway and disbursement priorities.
Contribution analysis by segment, product, and site, distinguishing structural losses from cyclical ones.
Sequenced operational and financial actions with liquidity impact, timing, and execution owners.
Modeled outcomes by stakeholder class across restructuring, sale, and wind-down alternatives.
Reliable, on-schedule reporting designed to rebuild credibility and support waiver or amendment negotiation.
Defined messaging and cadence across lenders, equity, vendors, employees, and customers.
Special situations engagements compress a great deal into a short window. The sequence is not negotiable.
We build the thirteen-week forecast, impose disbursement control, and establish the actual runway within the first days.
We determine what the business is genuinely worth going forward, at segment level, and report that directly to the board.
We develop the operational and financial restructuring plan, model alternatives, and compare recoveries across stakeholder classes.
We drive execution, negotiate with lenders and stakeholders, and pursue the alternative that preserves the most value.
We are engaged by companies in distress and by the stakeholders around them, often at the point where informal measures have been exhausted.
Facing liquidity pressure, covenant breach, or a plan that has ceased to be credible to capital providers.
Requiring an independent assessment of a borrower's position, forecast reliability, and realistic recovery alternatives.
Holding a portfolio company that has diverged materially from thesis and deciding between support, restructure, and exit.
Confronting a situation that has moved beyond what the existing team has the experience or bandwidth to manage.
What boards, lenders, and sponsors ask when a situation has deteriorated and the path forward is unclear.
Earlier than most do. The practical test is whether the company can still fund a process and still has alternatives available. Once liquidity is measured in weeks, the range of achievable outcomes narrows sharply and negotiating leverage with lenders is largely gone. Engaging at the point of covenant pressure or forecast deterioration (rather than at the point of crisis) materially changes what is possible.
Because in distress, accrual financial statements do not tell you when you run out of money. A thirteen-week receipts-and-disbursements forecast establishes actual runway, provides the basis for disbursement prioritization, and becomes the primary document in lender conversations. It is also how credibility is rebuilt: a forecast that proves accurate over successive weeks does more for a lender relationship than any presentation.
Acting decisively while alternatives still exist. It covers the immediate stabilization work (cash control, payment prioritization, vendor and supplier management, stakeholder communication, and lender engagement) that creates the operating stability required to address the underlying problems. Crisis management buys time; restructuring uses it.
Yes, and early. Recognizing that a business or a segment cannot be saved is itself value-preserving, because an orderly process almost always produces better recovery than a disorderly one. We would rather deliver an unwelcome assessment while alternatives remain than support a plan the analysis does not sustain.
Both, on separate engagements with clear boundaries. Company-side work focuses on stabilization, restructuring, and negotiation. Lender-side work focuses on independent assessment of the borrower's position, forecast reliability, and recovery alternatives. We do not act for both parties in the same situation.
Yes. Many distressed situations require execution rather than advice, particularly where the finance function cannot produce reliable information or where leadership has departed. Our partners take interim CFO, COO, and CEO roles with full accountability. In practice, restructuring and interim leadership are frequently the same engagement.
If liquidity is tightening, a covenant is at risk, or the current plan no longer reflects reality, the earliest conversation is the most useful one.