After completing a merger of equals, a newly formed multinational chemical and refining company faced economic headwinds leading to a complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company qualified for fresh-start accounting, requiring over 240 legal entities to record Plan of Reorganization effects and fresh-start value adjustments to their entity ledgers. However, with increased workloads from bankruptcy advisor requests, coupled with hiring limitations and skill gaps, employee turnover had spiraled to record numbers, adding urgency and complexity to the situation.
We deployed a senior-level multidisciplinary managed team with expertise in bankruptcy accounting, consolidations, equity accounting, technical accounting, internal controls, regulatory compliance and project management for bankruptcy emergence to address the client’s challenges across multiple workstreams. Our blend of advisory and execution support was critical in building an audit-ready opening balance sheet at emergence, supported by a stabilized accounting team to address post-emergence needs.
Key actions included:
With our support, the client emerged from bankruptcy as a public company with push-down accounting completed and audit-ready documentation prior to the first 10-Q being issued following emergence. This required preparation of three years of SEC-compliant financial statements in a registration statement, including detailed footnotes supporting a business unit divestiture.
We established a stable, transparent consolidation environment using HFM, significantly improving intercompany reconciliation and reducing risks during close cycles. Our team’s leadership across eight concurrent emergence projects ensured smooth coordination between internal stakeholders, external auditors and compliance functions. The rebuilt SOX processes not only enabled timely certification but also enhanced audit readiness and control reliability. As a result, the client gained lasting confidence in their reporting accuracy, internal controls and overall financial governance.