“U.S. companies are facing a $52 billion corporate-refinancing crisis,” said Stefano Aversa, co-president of AlixPartners. “Given the state of the credit markets, the inability to roll over this public debt and the potential of a serious cash crunch coming to Corporate America, this represents the next phase of the credit crisis – a direct hit to American businesses.

“However, a solution is available that is often overlooked,” Aversa continued. “One way to get cash fast is to unlock the dollars every company has tied up in working capital -- inventories, payables, receivables and so forth. A total of $562 billion in working-capital value is currently ‘trapped’ in companies across 56 different industries in America and, in our experience, companies often underestimate how quickly this ‘hidden money’ can be found. In fact, accessing this suboptimized capital may well represent the most effective and cost-efficient way for these companies to address their debt-refinancing issues.”

The AlixPartners research found that the industries with the highest percentages of trapped working capital, as measured by individual-company variances to industry working-capital averages, included automotive, industrials, healthcare suppliers and services, household durables, oil and gas, food and staples retailing and media. However, the trapped working-capital value for 52 of the 56 industries reviewed amounted to billions of dollars, while in 14 industries it was tens of billions of dollars.

About AlixPartners: AlixPartners is a global business advisory firm offering comprehensive services to improve corporate performance, execute corporate turnarounds, and provide litigation consulting and forensic accounting services. It was the recipient of a record four awards from the Turnaround Management Association in 2008. The firm has more than 800 professionals in 13 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia, and is on the Web at www.alixpartners.com.