Route A
Begin a confidential conversation
Founder to founder. No deck, no pitch.
RESTRUCTURING
Sitting in the chair, not standing beside it.
We sit shareholder-side, not creditor-side or court-side. Diagnosis, multi-stakeholder workout, operational stewardship from the CEO's chair when the situation calls for it, and asset deals or carve-outs when the legal entity cannot be saved. Built on the operating arc of a listed group through its crisis. Europe–Asia is the standard situation, not the exception.
WHAT THE WORK ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
Four kinds of work, running in parallel.
- 01Process rebuilding
Fixing how the business runs day-to-day. Bottlenecks, billing discipline, project delivery, utilisation, controls. The operational fire that has to stop burning before anything else holds.
- 02Portfolio reshaping
What stays, what goes, what changes. Products, services, customer segments, regions. The strategic decisions usually deferred until distress forces them.
- 03Financial restructuring
Debt renegotiation, creditor workouts, liquidity stabilisation. Asset deals and carve-outs when the legal entity cannot be saved.
- 04Practice installation
Putting the better way of working in place so it survives our departure. Cadence, governance, leadership succession.
The four kinds of work run together, not in sequence. The trade-offs between them need someone in the chair — not a coordinator with a deck. We take that chair when the situation calls for it. Shareholder-side, end to end.
References
A few of our cases
Polish eCommerce engineering company → strategic combination — anonymisedAnonymised
eCommerce engineering / Magento and Adobe Commerce / nearshore engineering · loss-making · approximately 40 employees pre-restructuring · 2024–2025
The company had built a credible international engineering business — customers in the US and Europe, deep Magento and Adobe Commerce expertise, an existing collaborative relationship with a US partner. But the operating model had not kept pace with the company's structural needs. Project profitability, utilisation, and billing discipline had eroded.
German-Italian SportswearFully anonymised
Premium sportswear / Active Wear · family business, second generation · multi-year revenue and operational restructuring · 2021–2024
Revenue had roughly halved over four years under combined pressure from COVID retail disruption, the structural insolvency wave through specialty retail, and accumulating internal operational issues. Bank credit lines were fully utilised, personally guaranteed by the 70-year-old founder. The relationship between the founder and his daughter — the incoming Geschäftsführerin — had become a structural blocker for every operational decision.
Teknihall Electronic GmbH / Teknihall Service GmbHNamed
After-sales service for electronics; logistics for Chinese manufacturers in Germany · approximately 61–140 employees · 2022–2023 · Named; reference available through Dennis Chen
Teknihall had moved from Münster to Dietzenbach in 2021 with significant expansion of warehouse space, personnel, and infrastructure on the expectation of growing Asian customer volume following the Pangoo investment. The volume did not materialise sufficiently — Covid disruption, raw-material shortages, freight-cost escalation, and declining business from Asian partners from early 2022 onward. The company was caught in a classic over-expansion crisis with high rent burden, oversized personnel, and insufficient revenue.
Kick start
Frequently asked questions
When should a shareholder call — before crisis hits, during, or after?
Before is best. The strongest restructuring outcomes start when the shareholder still has options — multiple paths open, time available to choose. Once liquidity is gone or stakeholder positions have hardened, options narrow fast. We also engage during crisis, where the work shifts to stabilisation and stakeholder management. After crisis is rare for us — that's usually rebuilding work for a different firm.
Do you take the CEO chair during a restructuring, or just advise?
Both, depending on what the situation needs. When existing leadership has been displaced, has lost authority with stakeholders, or doesn't have the bandwidth to run the business while restructuring it, we take the chair. When the existing leadership is still effective and what they need is operational counsel and shareholder-side advocacy, we work alongside. We are paid for time and judgement, not for keeping the title — so we step down when the situation no longer requires us in the chair.
What happens when the legal entity cannot be saved?
We work to preserve what can continue. Asset deals, carve-outs, or management buyouts transfer customers, equipment, people, contracts, and brand into a new structure that continues the work. Some entities cannot survive their crisis; that doesn't mean the business is lost. Sometimes the cleanest outcome is a controlled process with the right buyer waiting, not a fight to keep the legal entity alive at any cost.
Why shareholder-side and not creditor-side or court-side?
Restructuring has different professionals serving different sides. Insolvency administrators and custodians represent the process and the creditors. Banks have their own workout teams. We represent the shareholder — the person whose capital, time, and reputation are most exposed and most often unsupported in the room. Shareholder-side advocacy is the lane we've chosen. We coordinate with the others; we do not pretend to be them.
How is your restructuring practice different from a typical workout firm?
Three things. First, operational depth from inside the chair, not just from the spreadsheet — built on the operating arc of a listed group through its crisis. Second, single senior practitioner per mandate end to end, no junior handover. Third, shareholder-side, not creditor-side or court-side. Different lane, different judgement.
Two ways to start
Route B
Ask for a cross-border restructuring reference
Cross-border Europe–Asia restructuring reference available on request, in personal capacity. Released into specific conversations rather than published.