A special situation in finance is an atypical event which has the potential to alter the future course of a business, materially impacting the company's value. The notion covers corporate restructuring and corporate transactions such as spin-offs, share repurchases, security issuance/repurchase, asset sales, or other catalyst-oriented situations. A conflict of shareholders is also considered a special situation.
When a company announces a distressed situation; this is in most cases, the result of an extensive impact involving important economic, legal, tax and accounting decisions; bankruptcy, excessive debt and regulatory constraints. A restructuring exercise can turn into a fairly high-profile event, and it is crucial to the future of the company that the end-to-end process is managed with great sensitivity, confidentiality and efficiency.
There are 6 classes of special situations:
Generally, the special situations investing is considered to be a subclass of alternative investments. Special situations are very risky and challenging as businesses go not as usual. They require specialized expertise; determining the best price can be difficult. In addition, profits are far from assured, because prices might increase as more money chases deals.
Matchpoint Partners's team of professionals have substantial experience in financial restructuring and executing the sales of distressed assets to maximize recoveries for investors and creditors. We evaluate a full range of considerations including market conditions, liquidity needs, and legal and regulatory issues to identify the most efficient transaction solution.
We frequently draw upon the expertise of our restructuring and insolvency colleagues and their experience of advising on investing in companies in distressed situations, purchasing assets and businesses out of companies in distressed situations and restructuring companies near and in insolvency. We provide expert support throughout the entire lifecycle, delivered by local and global teams. This enables us to help banks create liquidity and unlock capital for reinvestment in other value adding lending activity benefitting the firm more broadly.
Our broad client base includes debtors, secured and unsecured creditors (including financial institutions, mezzanine investors, insurance companies, bondholders and landlords), creditor committees, special opportunity/situation investors, directors/officers and insolvency practitioners. Through working with these clients our team of professionals have gained valuable insights into the approaches of key stakeholders across the capital structure, and have developed and delivered innovative and practical solutions such as:
Our experienced team build robust, transparent financial models covering all circumstances and across a wide range of sectors. Our approach is to start with a clear understanding of the situation and design a bespoke model using proven methodologies and techniques. The advantages of our models include creating outputs and usability that are designed specifically for the user, as well as providing the flexibility of assumptions to perform sensitivity analysis.
Our experts partner with clients on corporate planning, providing perspective not only on immediate value and impact, but on long-term implications. We work closely with management and other advisers to leverage and complement their knowledge and ensure maximum impact, and actively support implementation and skill building.
