Specialised Consulting Services

Troubleshooting, turnarounds and general corporate advice

Is your business getting into financial difficulties? Is one of your corporate investments underperforming or failing?
Is one of your loan situations apparently getting into difficulties?
Is a major debtor unwilling or seemingly unable to meet its obligations?
Are you faced with closing or restructuring part/whole of your operations?
Are you confronted with major strategic or operational decisions?

BACKGROUND

For a variety of reasons, businesses can become financially distressed or may face the possibility of deteriorating financial health. This inevitably impacts on their operations and may ultimately even undermine their continuing viability. Businesses are also periodically faced with difficult situations that require a specialised and multidisciplinary approach to obviate potential financial loss.

These situations are difficult to define and can range across the full spectrum of problems that can arise in any business including:

the collection of a significant amount owed
the negotiation of a major licensing arrangement
interaction with various regulatory authorities
tax issues and tax structuring
risk related issues etc.

These situations can arise quite suddenly or develop over a period of time and usually affect the various stakeholders involved in different ways.

The stakeholders include:

Owner managers, institutional and other equity investors
Institutional and other lenders
Creditors and third parties with credit and other risk exposures
Holding company management in respect of subsidiary businesses under their control
Managers of the business

Major problems that are usually encountered are access to reliable and meaningful information and the availability of independent and informed analysis which would allow all affected stakeholders to make appropriate and timely decisions. Further complicating factors are that each stakeholder involved may have divergent and competing interests which can lead to conflict and an inappropriate course of action being adopted. In these circumstances the actions taken may result in unnecessary and avoidable losses being incurred by one or more of the stakeholders.

It is for these reasons that the involvement of a multidisciplinary independent expert almost invariably results in a better solution than any of the stakeholders would traditionally be able to achieve. Such an independent expert is able to unearth information that would otherwise remain either intentionally or unintentionally concealed and is also able to provide unique insights and most importantly formulate alternative strategies.

Stratexec offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and independent consultancy service (which can be either in the short term/project related or on an on-going/longer term basis) focused on:

troubleshooting
general advice
turnarounds
administrative solutions
liquidation solutions.

SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES

Stratexec would be appointed as an independent consultant according to an initial brief and on terms and conditions as may be agreed to with the appointing stakeholder(s) "the mandate".

The appointing stakeholder(s) may include:

the management of the business concerned
the management of the business on recommendation from one of the other interested stakeholders eg: institutional investors and/or lenders
one of the other interested parties directly
a number of interested stakeholders acting in cooperation to best further their joint interests

Mandates usually have a number of distinct phases including:

accessing and analysis of information
preliminary report
nstallation and/or implementation of solution identified
on-going oversight and troubleshooting

As an integral part of any mandate, Stratexec will require full disclosure from stakeholders and all management functionaries and access to all information deemed necessary including access to all relevant employees and management as may be agreed to.

The immediate objective is to produce a speedy preliminary summary report. In this report the concerns of the appointing stakeholders will be considered and advice will be provided on what the appropriate courses of action should be. For example these can involve outlining a turnaround and/or other strategies or moving to avoid or progress liquidation.

Thereafter the focus and scope of the service will be on the broader activities as outlined in the mandate including involvement in the implementation of any recommendations and any other continuing involvement.

Other services include:

participating in transactional business (eg: takeover and other deal situations) that may not be meeting expectations
renegotiating contracts (with customers, suppliers and other providers of services, restraints of trade and other employment issues)
coordinating with outside attorneys, advocates, auditors and other technical advisors and experts
general risk management including the perfection of bonds and other securities
imited forensics investigations
licensing arrangements
regulatory issues

UNIQUE METHODOLOGY

Stratexec is uniquely qualified to provide efficient and effective advice of the highest quality and practical effect. This is because of the breadth of the multi-disciplinary approach, technical knowledge and experience that it utalises in addressing any particular situation.

The areas addressed and methodology followed includes:

top down and bottom up management analysis including categorization of and addressing the patterns of business leadership which lead to business failure or mismanagement
evaluation of the sustainability of the operations through a comprehensive due diligence process involving a full range of legal, financial and commercial tools and techniques
various project management approaches and techniques in assessing and addressing specialised problems or situations
integrated cash flow analysis and cash flow management processes
sensitivity analysis and scenario modeling
detailed briefings to, liaisons with, and monitoring of other specialist advisors including legal, accounting and technical experts

PRINCIPAL PERSONNAL

David Elias "DE"

DE has been very active in providing independent troubleshooting, turnaround, liquidation and other consultancy advice for the past 30 years to a large range of corporates, financial institutions and entrepreneurs in South Africa and elsewhere. He was also for over 17 years, the Regional Chief Legal and Commercial Officer for a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange providing them with a range of advice and other services.

DE has a well deserved reputation as one of the most successful practitioners in the field and is currently retained as an independent advisor by major local and international corporations active in the South African market.

He has a B-Proc legal qualification and a business management degree and brings a wealth of experience and unique approach to all his assignments.

Peter Myers "PM"

PM has been active in the general corporate finance (mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and corporate advisory) area for over two decades initially working for various international investment banks based in London. He has worked in a number of different countries including the UK, USA and South Africa. He has also owned and/or managed a number of service, manufacturing and trading businesses.

PM is a chartered accountant with an MBA degree and also has an LLB legal qualification. He is the chief executive of Stratexec and in this role is committed to ensuring the delivery of a range of relevant workshops of the highest quality for the banking, financial services, corporate and government sectors in South Africa.

CONTACT DETAILS

For initial and completely confidential discussions please contact Peter Myers:

Cell: +27 (0)83 413 6086

Email: peter@stratexec.co.za

Website: www.stratexec.co.za