Exiting the crisis without destroying the company
In restructuring, the leaders who make it through are not the lucky ones. They are the ones who made five difficult decisions in the first ninety days. The others let the company degrade over time, lose their negotiating leverage one by one, and end up enduring a scheme none of them would have chosen.
When a company goes through a crisis, the decisions made in the first hundred days structure what follows. Too often, urgency leads to imposed trade-offs: forced sale, excessive dilution, lost governance. Arcadia Partners advises leaders in stress situations, with the conviction that there is almost always a path that preserves the company, the capital of historic shareholders and the interests of creditors at the same time.
When Arcadia steps in
The situations we handle look like these. An industrial SME emerging from a major investment whose returns are slow to materialise, and whose cash position becomes uncertain at six months. A majority shareholder who must refinance LBO debt reaching maturity in a deteriorated market context, without certainty that initial terms will hold. A company whose financial covenants are under stress and that sees the banking pool tightening quarter after quarter. A forced sale to be organised in haste, while preserving what can be preserved for the seller and for the teams.
We intervene upstream of court proceedings in the vast majority of cases. Our role is to avoid collective proceedings, or when these are unavoidable, to structure a safeguard or recovery plan that maximises operational continuity.
Our method
The first week of the mission is devoted to a rapid diagnosis: thirteen-week cash flow forecast, mapping of creditors, legal analysis of guarantees, identification of available action levers. We deliver to the leader and the supervisory board or board a synthetic report with the options and their respective implications.
Then comes the renegotiation work: with the banking pool to reschedule maturities, with shareholders for a possible recapitalisation, with new investors if external capital is necessary. In the most critical situations, we work in coordination with an ad hoc agent or a conciliator.
Engagement framework
Fixed-fee mission with a success fee tied to objectives (debt rescheduling, capital injection, return to positive cash flow). Typical duration: three to nine months.
Our commitment in these matters is to simultaneously defend the company, the historic shareholders and the legitimacy of the leader. None of these three should come out destroyed by the process. The earlier a crisis is taken in hand, the more options there are. If your company is going through a turbulent phase, call before the market notices.