Albert Stein is widely recognised as one of the most experienced restructuring experts in the market. He specialises in large complex cross-border cases involving multiple creditor groups. Before starting his own firm in 2008, he spent 29 years with JP Morgan dealing with stressed and distressed situations. During this period, he has led some of the largest and most complex restructurings ever undertaken, including Centro Properties (A$25 billion debt) and the Iraq Sovereign debt (US$ 20 billion). He has experience in many jurisdictions around the world, and has a reputation for finding the creative solution that preserves value, whether it is on the creditor or debtor side. In his shipping workout experience, he has arrived at consensual deals but has also arrested ships, operated them, and gone into joint ventures in order to provide his clients optimal solutions.

Examples of his client experience include:

• Acted as Debtor Side Advisor to Mecom plc, the pan-European newspaper group. Inserted into a situation where there was a loss of confidence among its banks, and an expensive two month extension of its covenants, Albert successfully concluded a restructuring that featured an extension of tenor, a tightening of headrooms, the loosening of the drawstop, and a small reduction of margins.
• Acting as Debtor Side Advisor to a major Middle Eastern Shipping group with multiple facilities and syndications, and an expansive new building program.
• Acted as advisor to the Republic of Iraq in their restructuring of the pre-sanctions Saddam Hussein era debt. Led the claimant negotiations which spanned 434 entities, 11,776 claims, and approximately $19.7 billion in debt. Won IFR Restructuring Deal of the Year 2006.

Albert is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has a master’s degree from the William Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. Albert is a US citizen and resides in the UK where he has lived since 1999. Prior to that, he was situated in Russia during the Russian financial crisis of 1998 and in Sweden and Norway during the Scandinavian banking crisis in the early 1990s. He has also lived and worked in France and Germany during his more than 20 years in Europe.