The liberalization of the energy market in Germany has made it easy for electricity/gas providers to position themselves in the market with an internet portal. More than two decades since liberalization of the market, there are now around 1,000 electricity/gas providers. In addition to an internet...
At the time of writing, approximately 30 UK-based energy supply companies have ceased trading since the start of 2021 alone, affecting millions of customers and altering the landscape of the UK’s retail consumer energy market. With the threat of continued increases to wholesale energy prices...
Early-stage companies and those with new and/or innovative solutions have a difficult time raising the capital necessary to ensure success, largely due to perceived imbalance of risk and reward. That difficulty is even more exaggerated when an early-stage company seeks to employ new and/or...
One of the most common yet challenging tasks that turnaround professionals must perform are multiparty negotiations. These negotiations are particularly difficult when counterparties perceive likely outcomes to be generally negative or not beneficial to their own interest. When that is the case,...
The Texas two-step is an iconic dance. Many readers may have memories of learning the dance steps in elementary school gym classes as training for future jaunts to legendary Texas venues like Gruene Hall or Billy Bob’s. These days, a Texas two-step of sorts is the talk of the restructuring world,...
From 2009 to 2019 the oil industry destroyed over $300 billion of investors’ capital, and that was before the 2020 crash. 1 During this era of relatively cheap oil, the industry was run like a failed startup: companies prioritized increased market share over profitability. Investors tolerated what...
In late March 2020, as the potential extent of devastation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic was becoming clear, a headline in The New York Times declared: “Scary Times for U.S. Companies Spell Boom for Restructuring Advisers.” There were more than 8,000 permanent brick-and-mortar store closures...
For owners of retail and mixed-use real estate facing distress, it is tempting to blame their economic woes solely on the COVID-19 pandemic. This explanation is attractive because it leaves them blameless, is seemingly self-evident, and does not compel them to justify their past actions or explain...
Secured term loan and revolver lenders in retail bankruptcy cases often leave money on the table because they do not understand how their security interests in a debtor’s “accounts” under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) extend to the proceeds of sale of a debtor’s real property interests,...
As most restructuring professionals would attest, 2021 was a historically slow year for corporate bankruptcy filings. Across the industry, filings in all chapters were down almost 25% from 2020 levels, and November 2021 recorded the fewest cases with a $10 million liability threshold since 2015...
