Getting a front row seat in a high-stakes restructuring

I was the most junior member of a project team that helped a footwear company manage its liquidity issues and develop a new business plan to optimize its business operations. The company was challenged by a drop in wholesale sales due to less foot store traffic from its customers. 

We were a small team, and it was hybrid project with a mix of on-site and remote workers. Therefore, I was often the only member of our team at the client site. I had the opportunity to work closely with the company’s CFO and the finance team on multiple liquidity management initiatives and to prepare business projections for the lender group. I also attended weekly strategy meetings and enjoyed discussing the operations of the company’s three separate sales channels in order to create a go forward business plan.

As part of the engagement, our team negotiated an out-of-court restructuring for over $300 million in secured debt. An out-of-court restructuring would result in significant cost savings for our client while reducing the amount of time to complete the deal from months to a few weeks. This process was successfully completed out-of-court, minimizing the impact to the client operations while enabling the business to emerge with sufficient liquidity for over a year of operations.

The project was memorable for a few reasons. First, having the ability to serve as the primary in-person liaison to the client’s leadership team gave me a lot of experience with client management and working with senior executives, including the company’s founder. Second, it was the first hybrid work engagement I worked on, and it was exciting to execute a complex project with people working both in-person and remote. Third, the project required advance cashflow analysis, and so it was an opportunity to apply some of skills I developed through the in-house trainings that the firm provides.  

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