Insolvency & debt advice

We have summarised our portfolio for you in the list below:

Consumer insolvency proceedings

• out-of-court restructuring for private individual and companies within the meaning of § 304 InsO
• court restructuring for private individual and companies within the meaning of § 304 InsO
• Advice and support for court consumer insolvency proceedings

Restructuring reports in accordance with IDW S6

Is you company in a critical situation? Is there already the threat of having to file for bankruptcy?

A critical situation is generally characterised by several elements. The most important components are probably the jeopardy to success and a liquidity crisis.

Insofar as a company suffers (long-term) losses, which use up its equity capital to such an extent that there is the risk of over-indebtedness, this is called jeopardy to success. In a liquidity crisis there is the threat of existence of the inability to pay. The causes of crises often lie in a lack of competitiveness (strategic crisis) or also misconduct by interest groups (stakeholder crisis).

Even an experienced management normally considers itself compelled in view of the crises and the associated threat of the obligation to file for bankruptcy to arrange for a restructuring plan to be drawn up by external advisers, also owing to the possibility of personal liability if misjudgements and incorrect decisions are made. In the WP manual essentially four characteristic obstacles are stated, which is why expert knowledge from a third party seems necessary:

• the problems are more complicated and multi-faceted than for normal analyses
• the documentation is often incomplete and unreliable
• the work is under particular pressure of time
• the people involved are largely biased

Unfortunately, everyday practice shows that companies in a critical situation often don’t recognise this crisis as such in sufficient time or only when it’s too late. The lack of cash-flow leads to overdue payments, overdrafts are used increasingly, the tax office and social insurance providers are not paid etc. It’s extremely important for companies in a critical situation to identify and introduce effective measures to reduce costs immediately. The aim is to increase the company’s room for manoeuvre in this way and strengthen the trust of the owners and providers of external capital, customers and suppliers in the prospects for the success of a turn-around.

We will help you to answer all outstanding restructuring issues in a binding manner in a report and search for solutions together with you, which we will present to you in a restructuring plan. We will also support you in discussions with stakeholders, who are the individuals or other legal entities involved, who have an interest in the progress or outcome of a process or project or the economic development of a company such as lenders, employees, suppliers, tax office, social insurance providers, partners, shareholders etc. It must achievable with regard to the implementation of the contributions envisaged by the interest groups concerned, such as above all shareholders, lenders, the management and employees, as well as regarding the implementation of the necessary operational and strategic restructuring measures.

This is because you shouldn’t be under any illusions. Without the creation of a sufficient consensus and the willingness to make sacrifices, it’s not usually possible to master a company crisis. Even the best restructuring plan is of no benefit if it can’t be implemented at its group of stakeholders.

Here mediating skills are need above all. Contact us.

If you as an entrepreneur have already drawn up a restructuring plan, we will review this restructuring plan as a task for an expert. Usually companies, banks or the tax office then want to have a written objective opinion from a neutral expert of whether the statements made in the restructuring plan will have a smooth path to successful implementation. A credit assessment or deferral of loans that are already due is generally possible with regard to banks only against submission of a restructuring report, in which the ability to restructure is certified by an expert.

A restructuring report contains details about the measures which could lead the company out of the crisis in an objective form that is comprehensible to a specialised third party, in other words which can be tracked, or in the worst case scenario the ability to restructure is not ascertained.

Restructuring plan

If we instructed with the restructuring of a company in a critical situation, we will chiefly work through three core areas for you:

• Improvement in liquidity with a so-called immediate (crash) programme
• Consolidation programme (restructuring)
• New strategic direction (turn-around)

We will support you in moving out (disinvestment, closure) of business activities (moving location and site closures, plants, companies, segments, regions). We will review your current cash situation and your cash requirements and support you in implementing the restructuring plan we have drawn up.

In the short term we will work out possible solutions such as:

• Implementing strict liquidity management
• Undertaking operational cost reduction measures
• Selling assets which are not necessary for the business
• closing or selling loss-making (parts of) businesses
• Verifying the strategic positioning of the company.

Naturally our reports take account of the standards set by the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer e.V. (IDW).