|
The
firm was expected to announce the move on Tuesday.
Goffman, 63, is the latest high-profile restructuring adviser to
shift toward consulting and crisis management after practicing
law or banking on Wall Street. Jon Henes, a former Kirkland &
Ellis LLP restructuring partner, started strategic consulting
firm C Street Advisory Group last year.
In addition to legal counsel and bankers who arrange financing,
companies facing financial turmoil also rely on crisis managers
to help navigate relations with employees, suppliers, government
officials and media coverage.
Goffman headed or co-led the restructuring practice at law firm
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP for roughly a dozen
years before moving to Rothschild as a banker helping distressed
companies obtain fresh financing and rework their balance
sheets.
After a spate of bankruptcies following the COVID-19 pandemic,
corporate restructurings have slowed amid low interest rates and
recovering financial markets. Federal Reserve policymakers,
though, have signaled a looming rate hike in part to battle
inflation, which Goffman contends could contribute to another
wave of restructurings for companies that have not addressed
unsustainable debts.
"It’s hard to put an exact date on it, but it’s coming," Goffman
said, adding he worries the next cycle of distress could be
"longer and deeper."
Teneo, meanwhile, acquired Deloitte’s UK restructuring business
last year and in 2020 acquired Goldin Associates, a financial
advisory firm focused on distressed companies. Teneo is
currently advising OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP on its
bankruptcy case.
Goffman helped pioneer so-called prepackaged bankruptcies, in
which companies and creditors present an agreed-upon
restructuring to a judge right after filing for Chapter 11 in an
effort to limit the amount of time spent navigating court
proceedings.
One company Goffman advised, school bus manufacturer Blue Bird,
used the strategy to receive bankruptcy-court approval of its
reorganization in less than two days.
He also worked on the bankruptcies of solar-energy company
SunEdison Inc in 2016 and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the famed movie
studio with the roaring lion logo that filed for Chapter 11 in
2010. When the parent of American Airlines filed for bankruptcy
in 2011, he advised creditors and helped engineer a merger with
rival US Airways.
(Reporting by Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli in New York;
Editing by Howard Goller)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
