Discussing Distressed & Restructuring M&A Deals

Question 1

How much do you know about what you actually do in Restructuring?

Answer 1

Restructuring bankers advise distressed companies - businesses going bankrupt, in the midst of bankruptcy, or getting out of bankruptcy - and help them change their capital structure to get out of bankruptcy, avoid it in the first place, or assist with a sale of the company depending on the scenario.

Question 2

What are the 2 different “sides” of a Restructuring deal? Do you know which one we usually advise?

Answer 2

Bankers can advise either the debtor (the company itself) or the creditors (anyone that has lent the company) money.

It’s similar to sell-side vs. buy-side M&A - in one you’re advising the company trying to sell or get out of the mess it’s in, and in the other you’re advising buyers and lenders that are trying to take what they can from the company.

Note that the “creditors” are often multiple parties since it’s anyone who loaned the company money. There are also “operational advisors” that help with the actual turnaround. You need to research which bank does what, but typically Blackstone and Lazard advise the debtor and Houlihan Lokey advises the creditors (these 3 are commonly as the top groups in the field).

Question 3

Why are you interested in Restructuring?

Answer 3

You gain a very specialized skill set (thereby becoming a more valuable analyst) and much of the work is actually more technical and interesting than M&A.

For example, you gain broader exposure because you see both the bright sides and not-so-bright sides of companies.

You also have to operate within a legal framework and attorneys are involved at every step of the process and given my comfort in working with lawyers in the past, it is within my wheelhouse.

Question 4

How are you going to use experience in Restructuring for your future career goals?

Answer 4

In addition to gaining broader exposure by seeing both the bright side and not-so-bright sides of companies, you can also use the experience to work at a Distressed Investments or Special Situations Fund, which most people outside Restructuring do not have access to.

Or you could just go back to M&A or normal investing too, and still have the superior technical knowledge to other bankers.

Question 5

Why would a company go bankrupt in the first place?

Answer 5

Here are a few common reasons:

1. A company cannot meet its debt obligations / interest payments.
2. Creditors can accelerate debt payments and force the company into bankruptcy.
3. An acquisition has gone poorly or a company has just written down the value of its assets steeply and needs extra capital to stay afloat (see: investment banking industry).
4. There is a liquidity crunch and the company cannot afford to pay its vendors or suppliers.

Question 6

What options are available to a distressed company that can’t meet debt obligations?

Answer 6

1. Refinance and obtain fresh debt or equity.
2. Sell the company (either as a whole or in pieces in an asset sale).
3. Restructure its financial obligations to lower interest payments / debt repayments, or issue debt with PIK interest to reduce the cash interest expense.
4. File for bankruptcy and use that opportunity to obtain additional financing, restructure its obligations, and be freed of onerous contracts

Question 7

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?

Answer 7

1. Refinance -

• Advantages*: Least disruptive to company and would help revive confidence;
• Disadvantages*: Difficult to attract investors to a company on the verge of going bankrupt.

2. Sale -

• Advantages*: Shareholders could get some value and creditors would be less infuriated, knowing that funds are coming;
• Disadvantages*: Unlikely to obtain a good valuation in a distressed sale, so company might sell for a fraction of its true worth

3. Restructuring -

• Advantages*: Could resolve problems quickly without 3rd party involvement;
• Disadvantages*: Lenders are often reluctant to increase their exposure to the company and management and lenders do not see eye-to-eye.

4. Bankruptcy -

• Advantages*: Could be the best way to negotiate with lenders, reduce obligations, and get additional financing;
• Disadvantages*: Significant business disruptions and lack of confidence from customers, and equity investors would likely lose all their money.

Question 8

From the perspective of creditors, what different strategies do they have available to recover their capital in a distressed situation?

Answer 8

These mirror the options that are available to the company itself in a distressed scenario:

1. Lend additional capital / grant equity to company

2. Conditional financing - Only agree to invest if the company cuts expenses, stops losing money and agrees to other terms and covenants.

3. Sale - Force the company to hire an investment bank to sell itself, or parts of itself.

4. Foreclosure - Bank seizes collateral and forces a bankruptcy filing.

Question 9

How are Restructuring deals different from other types of transactions?

Answer 9

They are more complex, involve more parties, require more specialized/technical skills, and have to follow the Bankruptcy legal code - unlike most other types of deals bankers work on.

The debtor advisor for example, might have to work with creditors during a forbearance period and then work with lawyers to determine collateral recoveries for each tranche of debt.

Also, unlike most standard M&A deals, the negotiation extends beyond two “sides” - it’s not just the creditors negotiating with the debtors, but also the different creditors negotiating with each other. Distressed sales can happen very quickly if the company is on the brink of bankruptcy, but those are different from Bankruptcy scenarios.

Question 10

What is the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

Answer 10

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is also known as a “liquidation bankruptcy” - the company is too far past the point of reorganization and must instead sell off its assets and pay off creditors.

A trustee ensures that all this happens according to plan. Chapter 11 is more of a “reorganization” - the company doesn’t die, but instead changes the terms on its debt and renegotiates everything to lower interest payments and the dollar value of debt repayments.

If we pretend a distressed company is a cocaine addict, Chapter 7 would be like a heart attack and Chapter 11 would be like rehab.

Question 11

What is debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing and how is it used with distressed companies?

Answer 11

It is money borrowed by the distressed company that has repayment priority over all other existing secured/unsecured debt, equity, and other claims. It is considered “safe” by lenders because it is subject to stricter terms than other forms of financing.

Theoretically, this makes it easier for distressed companies to emerge from the bankruptcy process - though some argue that DIP financing is actually harmful on an empirical basis. Some DIP lending firms are known for trying to take over companies at a significant discount due to the huge amount of collateral they have.

One reason companies might choose to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is to get access to DIP financing.

Question 12

How would you adjust the 3 statements for a distressed company when you’re doing valuation or modeling work?

Answer 12

Here are the most common adjustments:

1. Adjust Cost of Goods Sold for higher vendor costs due to lack of trust from suppliers.

2. Add back non-recurring legal / other professional fees associated with the restructuring and / or distressed sale process.

3. Add back excess lease expenses (again due to lack of trust) to Operating Income as well as excess salaries (often done so private company owners can save on taxes).

4. Working Capital needs to be adjusted for receivables unlikely to turn into cash, overvalued / insufficient inventory, and insufficient payables.

5. CapEx spending is often off (if it’s too high that might be why they’re going bankrupt, if it’s too low they might be doing that artificially to save money).

Question 13

Would those adjustments differ for public versus private companies?

Answer 13

Most of the adjustments that you would make for a distressed company when you’re doing valuation or modeling work apply to public companies as well, but the point about excess salaries does not hold true for public companies. It is much tougher for public companies to manipulate the system like that and pay abnormal salaries.

Question 14

If the market value of a distressed company’s debt is greater than the company’s assets, what happens to equity?

Answer 14

The Shareholders’ Equity goes negative, which is actually not that uncommon and happens all the time in Leveraged Buyouts as well as when a company is unprofitable.

A company’s Equity Market Cap (which is different, it’s simply shares outstanding multiplied by share price) would remain positive, though, as that can never be negative.

Question 15

In a bankruptcy, what is the order of claims on a company’s assets?

Answer 15

1. New debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders
2. Secured creditors (revolvers and “bank debt”)
3. Unsecured creditors (“high-yield” bonds)
4. Subordinated debt investors (similar to high-yield bonds)
5. Mezzanine investors (convertibles, convertible preferred stock, preferred stock, PIK)
6. Shareholders (equity investors) Secured means that the lender’s claims are protected by specific assets or collateral; unsecured means anyone who has loaned the company money without collateral.

For more on different types of debt, see the LBO section where we have a chart showing the differences between everything.

Question 16

How do you measure the cost of debt for a company if it is too distressed to issue additional debt (i.e. investors won’t buy any debt from them)?

Answer 16

You’d have to look at the yields of bonds or the spreads of credit default swaps of comparable companies to get a sense of this.

You could also just use the current yields on a company’s existing debt to estimate this, though it may be difficult if the existing debt is illiquid.

Question 17

How would valuation change for a distressed company?

Answer 17

1. You use the same methodologies most of the time (public company comparables, precedent transactions, DCF, etc…)
2. Except you look more at the lower range of the multiples and make all the accounting adjustments we went through previously
3. You also use lower projections for a DCF and anything else that needs projections because you assume a turnaround period is required
4. You might pay more attention to revenue multiples if the company is EBIT, EBITDA, or EPS negative.
5. You also look at a liquidation valuation under the assumption that the company’s assets will be sold off and used to pay its obligations.
6. Sometimes you look at valuations on both an assets-only basis and current liabilities-assumed basis. The distinction exists because you need to make big adjustments to liabilities with distressed companies.

Question 18

How would a DCF analysis be different in a distressed scenario?

Answer 18

Even more of the value would come from the terminal value since you normally assume a few years of cash flow-negative turnaround.

You might also do a sensitivity table on hitting or missing earnings projections, and also add a premium to WACC to make it higher and account for operating distress.

Question 19

Let’s say a distressed company approaches you and wants to hire your bank to sell it in a distressed sale - how would the M&A process be different than it would for a healthy company?

Answer 19

1. Timing is often quick since the company needs to sell or else they’ll go bankrupt.
2. Sometimes you’ll produce fewer “upfront” marketing materials (Information Memoranda, Management Presentations, etc…) in the interest of speed.
3. Creditors often initiate the process rather than the company itself.
4. Unlike normal M&A deals, distressed sales can’t “fail” - they result in a sale, a bankruptcy or sometimes a restructuring.

Question 20

Normally in a sell-side M&A process, you always want to have multiple bidders to increase competition. Is there any reason they’d be especially important in a distressed sale?

Answer 20

Yes - the only way to improve price for your client is to have multiple bidders.

Otherwise, you have almost no negotiating leverage because you represent a company that’s about to die.

Question 21

The 2 basic ways you can buy a company are through a stock purchase and an asset purchase. What is the difference and what would a buyer in a distressed sale prefer? How about the seller?

Answer 21

In a stock purchase, you acquire 100% of a company’s shares as well as all its assets and liabilities (on and off-balance sheet).

In an asset purchase, you acquire only certain assets of a company and assume only certain liabilities - so you can pick and choose exactly what you’re getting.

Companies typically use assets purchases for divestitures, distressed M&A, and smaller private companies; anything large, public, and healthy generally needs to be acquired via a stock purchase.

A buyer almost always prefers an asset purchase so it can avoid assumption of unknown liabilities (there are also tax advantages for the buyer).

A (distressed) seller almost always prefers a stock purchase so it can be rid of all its liabilities and because it gets taxed more heavily when selling assets vs. selling the entire business.

Question 22

Sometimes a distressed sale does not end in a conventional stock or asset purchase - what are some other possible outcomes?

Answer 22

Other possible outcomes:

1. Foreclosure (either official or unofficial)
2. General assignment (faster alternative to bankruptcy)
3. Section 363 asset sale (a faster, less risky version of a normal asset sale)
4. Chapter 11 bankruptcy 5. Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Question 23

Normally M&A processes are kept confidential - is there any reason why a distressed company would want to announce the involvement of a banker in a sale process?

Answer 23

This happens even outside distressed sales - generally the company does it if they want more bids or want to increase the competition and drive a higher purchase price.

Question 24

Are shareholders likely to receive any compensation in a distressed sale or bankruptcy?

Answer 24

They may receive something in such a scenario, but it’s usually very little and is simply a nominal amount to make them go forward with the company’s plan.

And they may also receive nothing at all, though it depends on the specific scenario and the company’s financial situation.

Question 25

Let’s say a company wants to sell itself or simply restructure its obligations - why might it be forced into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

Answer 25

In a lot of cases, aggressive creditors force this to happen - if they won’t agree to the restructuring of its obligations or they can’t finalize a sale outside court, they might force a company into Chapter 11 by accelerating debt payments.

Question 26

What kind of companies would most likely enact debt buy-backs?

Answer 26

Most likely over-levered companies - ones with too much debt - that were acquired by PE firms in leveraged buyouts during the boom years, and now face interest payments they have trouble meeting, along with excess cash.

Question 27

Why might a creditor have to take a loss on the debt it loaned to a distressed company?

Answer 27

This happens to lower-priority creditors all the time.

Remember, secured creditors always come first and get first claim to all the proceeds from a sale or series fo asset sales; if a creditor is lower on the totem pole, they only get what’s left of the proceeds so they have to take a loss on their loans / obligations. Secured creditors may also have to take a loss, but it’s smaller than the more junior creditors.

Question 28

What is the end goal of a given financial restructuring?

Answer 28

A restructuring may change the terms of debt (interest payments, monthly/quarterly principal repayments, covenants, etc.) and may also result in the exchange of debt for equity.

The debt-for-equity exchange does not always happen but it is one possible outcome; sometimes the total amount of debt does not change and only the terms do.

Question 29

What’s the difference between a Distressed M&A deal and a Restructuring deal?

Answer 29

“Restructuring” is one possible outcome of a Distressed M&A deal. A company can be “distressed” for many reasons, but the solution is not always to restructure its debt obligations - it might declare bankruptcy, it might liquidate and sell off its assets, or it might sell 100% of itself to another company.

Restructuring just refers to what happens when the distressed company in question decides it wants to change around its debt obligations so that it can better repay them in the future.

Question 30

What’s the difference between acquiring just the assets of a company and acquiring it on a “current liabilities assumed” basis?

Answer 30

When you acquire the assets of a distressed company, you get literally just the assets. But when you acquire the current liabilities as well, you need to make adjustments to account for the fact that a distressed company’s working capital can be extremely skewed.

Specifically, “owed expense” line items like Accounts Payables and Accrued Expenses are often much higher than they would be for a healthy company so you need to subtract the difference if you’re assuming the current liabilities. This results in a deduction to your valuation - so in most cases the valuation is lower if you’re assuming current liabilities.

Question 31

How could a decline in a company’s share price cause it to go bankrupt?

Answer 31

Trick question. Remember, Market Cap does not equal Shareholders’ Equity!!!

You might be tempted to say something like, “Shareholders’ equity falls!” but the share price of the company does not affect shareholders’ equity, which is a book value!

What actually happens:

As a result of the share price drop, customers, vendors, suppliers, and lenders would be more reluctant to do business with the distressed company - so its revenue might fall and its Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses line items might climb to unhealthy levels.

All of that might cause the company to fail or require more capital, but the share price decline itself does not lead to bankruptcy.

In the case of Bear Stearns in 2008, overnight lenders lost confidence as a result of the sudden share price declines and it completely ran out of liquidity as a result - which is a big problem when your entire business depends on overnight lending.

Question 32

What happens to Accounts Payable Days with a distressed company?

Answer 32

They rise and the average AP Days might go well beyond what’s “normal” for the industry - this is because a distressed company has trouble paying its vendors and suppliers.

Question 33

Let’s say a distressed company wants to raise debt or equity to fix its financial problems rather than selling or declaring bankruptcy. Why might it not be able to do this?

Answer 33

Debt: Sometimes if the company is too small or if investors don’t believe it has a credible turnaround plan, they will simply refuse to lend it any sort of capital.

Equity: Same as above but worse - since equity investors have a lower priority than debt investors. Plus, for a distressed company getting “enough” equity can mean selling 100% or close to 100% of the company due to its depressed market cap.

Question 34

Will the adjusted EBITDA of a distressed company be higher or lower than the value you would get from its financial statements?

Answer 34

In most cases it will be higher because you’re adjusting for higher-than-normal salaries, one-time legal and restructuring charges, and more.

Question 35

Would you used Levered Cash Flow for a distressed company in a DCF since it might be encumbered with debt?

Answer 35

No, in fact with distressed companies it’s really important to analyze cash flows on a debt-free basis precisely because they might have higher-than-normal debt expenses.

Question 36

Let’s say we’re doing a Liquidation Valuation for a distressed company. Why can’t we just use the Shareholder’s Equity number for its value? Isn’t that equal to Assets minus Liabilities?

Answer 36

In a Liquidation Valuation you need to adjust the values of the assets to reflect how much you could get if you sold them off separately. You might assume, for example, that you can only recover 50% of the book value of a company’s inventory if you tried to sell it off separately. Shareholders’ Equity is equal to Assets minus Liabilities, but in a Liquidation Valuation we change the values of all the Assets so we can’t just use the Shareholders’ Equity number.

Question 37

What kind of recovery can you expect for different assets in a Liquidation Valuation?

Answer 37

This varies by industry, company and the specific assets, but some guidelines are as follows:

1. Cash - Probably close to 100% because it’s most liquid

2. Investments - Varies a lot by what they are and how liquid, you may get close to 100% for the ones closest to cash but significantly less for equity investments in other companies

3. Accounts Receivables - Less than what you’d get for cash because many customers might just not “pay” a distressed company

4. Inventory - Less than Cash or AR because inventory is of little use to a different company

5. PP&E - similar to cash for land and buildings, and less than that for equipment.

6. Intangible Asset - 0%. No one will pay you anything for Goodwill or the value of a brand name - if they will, it’s nearly impossible to quantify

Question 38

How would an LBO model for a distressed company be different?

Answer 38

The purpose of an LBO model here is not to determine the private equity firm’s IRR, but rather figure out how quickly the company can pay off its debt obligations as well as what kind of IRR any new debt/equity investors can expect.

Other than that, it’s not much different from the “standard” LBO model - the mechanics are the same, but you have different kinds of debt (i.e. Debtor-in-Possession), possibly more tranches, and the returns will probably be lower because it’s a distressed company, though occasionally “bargain” deals can turn out to be very profitable.

One structural difference is that a distressed company LBO is more likely to take the form of an asset purchase rather than a stock price.