Turnaround Issues

In recent years, the life sciences sector has faced mounting pressures from capital market volatility, regulatory scrutiny and evolving patient data standards. With a noticeable uptick in financial distress and a decline in successful bankruptcy resolutions, stakeholders are grappling with existential questions about sustainability, compliance, and trust. Bringing together finance, legal, operational and regulatory perspectives, this session will provide attendees with practical insights into how companies can manage risk, preserve value and protect trust – even under duress.

Liability-management exercises (LMEs) have become common transactions in order for financially distressed companies to obtain financing secured by previously encumbered assets. From uptiers, drop-downs, double dips and pari plus transactions, courts have begun to analyze and rule on the enforceability of LMEs and, in certain instances, their limitations. This panel will analyze various examples of recent LMEs and discuss the repercussions of such transactions from both the borrower and lender perspective.

This panel will consider the impact of President Trump’s policies on corporate restructurings and strategies for advising clients in light of those policies. Specifically, the panelists will analyze executive actions on tariffs, immigration, deregulation and taxes, among others, as well as the impacts of those actions on financings and the distressed investing market. It will discuss whether the potential disruptions resulting from those policies are analogous to past economic disruptions, or whether they are unique.

This panel will examine the latest pressure points in bankruptcy financing at both conceptual and granular levels, including pre-petition bridge loans, stalking-horse financings, roll-ups, intercreditor and intralender disputes and protections, DIP sizing and budgeting issues, and the overall effect of DIP and cash-collateral orders on case trajectory.

The chapter 11 landscape is evolving. This panel will cover current economic headwinds facing debtors, and structuring bankruptcy strategies and feasible chapter 11 plans in this environment.

This panel focuses on the critical role of strategic communications during large, high-profile bankruptcy cases. Using real-world examples, experts discuss the challenges of managing media narratives, stakeholder concerns and public perception in high-stakes scenarios. Topics include media relations, crisis communication strategies, and the importance of proactive storytelling to ensure a successful restructuring.

This panel discusses workout strategies for distressed real estate cases from lender and borrower perspectives, including what works, what doesn’t, tradeoffs, pitfalls and more.

It is expected that a significant amount of activity in the next 18 months will consist of out-of-court restructurings, with a smaller proportion being chapter 11 bankruptcies.  Experts in restructuring estimate that out-of-court restructurings will comprise between 70% and 75% of the workout “transactions” made over the next year and a half. This panel will delve into what we can expect to see in the near future.