A corporate recovery (also referred to as corporate turnaround, restructuring, retrenchment, or downsizing) is a rescue undertaken by professional accountants or financiers who are trained to assist the management of a company in financial and other difficulties. This work is usually initiated at the behest of the directors of the company and is normally undertaken by licensed insolvency practitioners.
Corporate recovery generally involves certain steps to achieve financial stability, such as asset liquidation, divestment, product elimination, layoffs, and operational efficiency improvements. [1] Firms may initially undergo a retrenchment stage whereby they cut costs and stabilize their finances. This is followed by a recovery stage, whereby long-term profitability and growth are prioritized. Strategies for the recovery stage may include market penetration, re-concentration, segmentation, acquisition, and new product-market expansion. [2]
To address recovery from ethical failures, companies often incorporate governance reforms, ethical training, and enhanced accountability measures during the recovery process. This helps to rebuild trust with stakeholders and ensure that future decision-making aligns with both legal and ethical standards, preventing a recurrence of previous failures. [3]
Firms may assist in corporate recovery by offering services related to bankruptcy, financial advisory, performance improvement, trustee, and restructuring activities. [4]
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the assets of the acquiring company. The use of debt, which normally has a lower cost of capital than equity, serves to reduce the overall cost of financing the acquisition. This is done at the risk of magnified cash flow losses should the acquisition perform poorly after the buyout.
Consumer privacy is information privacy as it relates to the consumers of products and services.
Marketing strategy refers to efforts undertaken by an organization to increase its sales and achieve competitive advantage. In other words, it is the method of advertising a company's products to the public through an established plan through the meticulous planning and organization of ideas, data, and information.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in, with, or supporting professional service volunteering through pro bono programs, community development, administering monetary grants to non-profit organizations for the public benefit, or to conduct ethically oriented business and investment practices. While once it was possible to describe CSR as an internal organizational policy or a corporate ethic strategy similar to what is now known today as Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG); that time has passed as various companies have pledged to go beyond that or have been mandated or incentivized by governments to have a better impact on the surrounding community. In addition, national and international standards, laws, and business models have been developed to facilitate and incentivize this phenomenon. Various organizations have used their authority to push it beyond individual or industry-wide initiatives. In contrast, it has been considered a form of corporate self-regulation for some time, over the last decade or so it has moved considerably from voluntary decisions at the level of individual organizations to mandatory schemes at regional, national, and international levels. Moreover, scholars and firms are using the term "creating shared value", an extension of corporate social responsibility, to explain ways of doing business in a socially responsible way while making profits.
Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can continue its operations.
Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, and other stakeholders. Often, this involves radical changes to a brand's logo, name, legal names, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes. Such changes typically aim to reposition the brand/company, occasionally to distance itself from negative connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand upmarket; they may also communicate a new message a new board of directors wishes to communicate.
Restructuring or Reframing is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons for restructuring include a change of ownership or ownership structure, demerger, or a response to a crisis or major change in the business such as bankruptcy, repositioning, or buyout. Restructuring may also be described as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financial restructuring.
Financial distress is a term in corporate finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. If financial distress cannot be relieved, it can lead to bankruptcy. Financial distress is usually associated with some costs to the company; these are known as costs of financial distress.
Diversification is a corporate strategy to enter into or start new products or product lines, new services or new markets, involving substantially different skills, technology and knowledge.
A divisional buyout or carveout, in finance, is a transaction in which a corporate division, business unit, or subsidiary is acquired using the same financial structuring as a leveraged buyout.
Edward I. Altman is a Professor of Finance, Emeritus, at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is best known for the development of the Altman Z-score for predicting bankruptcy which he published in 1968. Professor Altman is a leading academic on the High-Yield and Distressed Debt markets and is the pioneer in the building of models for credit risk management and bankruptcy prediction.
The Z-score formula for predicting bankruptcy was published in 1968 by Edward I. Altman, who was, at the time, an Assistant Professor of Finance at New York University. The formula may be used to determine the probability that a firm will go into bankruptcy within two years. Z-scores are used to predict corporate defaults and an easy-to-calculate control measure for the financial distress status of companies in academic studies. The Z-score uses multiple corporate income and balance sheet values to measure the financial health of a company.
Business failure refers to a company ceasing operations following its inability to make a profit or to bring in enough revenue to cover its expenses. A profitable business can fail if it does not generate adequate cash flow to meet expenses.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage." Examples of CVCs include GV and Intel Capital.
Turnaround management is a process dedicated to corporate renewal. It uses analysis and planning to save troubled companies and return them to solvency, and to identify the reasons for failing performance in the market, and rectify them. Turnaround management involves management review, root failure causes analysis, and SWOT analysis to determine why the company is failing. Once analysis is completed, a long term strategic plan and restructuring plan are created. These plans may or may not involve a bankruptcy filing. Once approved, turnaround professionals begin to implement the plan, continually reviewing its progress and make changes to the plan as needed to ensure the company returns to solvency.
FRP Advisory is a business advisory firm based in the United Kingdom, providing restructuring, corporate finance, debt advisory, forensic accounting and financial advisory and is one of the UK’s largest specialists in the area of corporate restructuring.
Peter S. Kaufman is an American investment banker and private equity investor. He is the President and Head of Restructuring and Distressed M&A at Gordian Group LLC, an investment banking firm. He is also a Managing Partner of Bacchus Capital Management, a winery investment concern.
FTI Consulting is a business consultancy firm founded in 1982 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. The company specializes in corporate finance and restructuring, economic consulting, forensic and litigation consulting, strategic communications, technology and strategy consulting. FTI Consulting employs more than 7,700 staff in 31 countries and is one of the largest financial consulting firms worldwide.
AlixPartners is a financial advisory and global consulting firm. Jay Alix founded what became AlixPartners LLP in 1981. The firm has advised on some of the largest Chapter 11 reorganizations including General Motors Co., Kmart, and Enron Corp. The firm has since moved into a more traditional consulting space, and grown to a staff of over 1000. AlixPartners is headquartered in New York, and has offices in more than 20 cities around the world. They were also involved in the Bernie Madoff scandal, identifying 13,000 investors affected by the scandal for the prosecuting team.
Alvarez & Marsal Holdings, LLC (A&M) is a global professional services firm notable for its work in turnaround management and performance improvement of a number of large, high-profile businesses both in the US and abroad such as Lehman Brothers, HealthSouth, Tribune Company, Warnaco, Interstate Bakeries, Target, Darden Restaurants and Arthur Andersen.