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Restructuring: more options than you think

However well you run your business, something can always go wrong. You cannot reverse what has happened, but you can choose how to respond, and there may be more options than you think.

24 May 2021

No matter how well you run your business, there’s always a chance of something going wrong. 

It’s often something completely beyond your control: a cashflow problem, an unpaid invoice, a contract that’s fallen through.

Individuals are just as vulnerable: sickness, redundancy or plain bad luck can suddenly make your life very difficult. 

You can’t take back what’s happened, but you can choose what you do next, and there may be more options than you think.

Our Restructuring team provides businesses with commercially focussed and pragmatic advice on improving or protecting their business, whether they are looking to build business resilience or meet adverse challenges.

We cover the whole of the UK with offices in Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, Torquay and Worcester.

Our advisory services fall into the following key areas:

Corporate Advisory and Restructuring

Periods of business under-performance create uncertainty for everyone involved, from directors and shareholders to creditors, employees, customers and suppliers. Decisive action based on experience, technical expertise and commercial understanding are key and can offer a way forward.

We help unravel the issues, solve the problems and aim to protect value for all stakeholders.

Raising and Refinancing Debt

Sometimes businesses get into financial difficulties where, even though there is a visible solution, there is not enough cash to fund the transition. The consequence is that businesses that may have had a future simply fail and close.

We assist with the preparation of detailed plans to reorganise, recover and rebuild business, exploring options and strategy. We can prepare financial projections and help document detailed business plans for lenders, and then help secure the appropriate finance you require.

Distress Mergers and Acquisitions

When a business struggles or fails, there are often others who can step in to turn it around, save jobs, protect the goodwill and build a new business on the foundations of the old. In these situations, clarity of vision, access to buyers and prospects, and speed is critical.

We assist by assessing your strategic options, preparing your business for sale, researching the market and finding potential buyers, negotiating the best deal for you. We provide commercial and financial input to the legal process and project manage the transaction to completion.

Alternatively, if you find a business in distress that you are interested in, we can help too.

Creditor Services

Where payment terms are adhered to and relationships with customers are strong, taking on the role of creditor is not a concern. However, problem customers are a constant threat. We advise on the strategies that can be deployed to minimise the risk of problems arising. Where problems already exist, we advise on the solutions.

Capital Extraction and Solvent Restructuring

There are many reasons to restructure a solvent company or group of companies, from winding down a company once it has reached the end of its useful life, to simplifying a group structure. 

We advise on a variety of solvent exit strategies where shareholders are seeking to extract their capital in a tax efficient and structured manner, including members’ voluntary liquidation.

We also review and manage corporate simplification projects. 

Debt Recovery and Dispute Resolution

Bishop Fleming is partnered with Escalate, a revolutionary and award-winning commercial dispute solution that is transforming how SMEs resolve bad debts, late payments and other types of business disputes.

Escalate was created by the professional services market to provide a smarter way to resolve SME disputes by focusing on a quick settlement, removing upfront costs and minimising risk.

There are no restrictions on the types of cases Escalate can tackle – bad debt, contractual, negligence, IP infringement etc, and importantly, they can revisit disputes up to three years old.

Further help available

If your business requires a review and some possible restructuring in order to be more effective and efficient, please contact our Restructuring Team for a conversation.

You can also check out our articles and guides in our Restructuring Knowledge Hub.

Key contacts

Luke Venner

Partner

01392 448874

Email Luke

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