Newsletter

You may recall that our previous client update issued in July was titled "2009 - the year of the CVA?" Given the activity we have seen over the last three months, I think we can confidently drop the question mark in the title and confirm that 2009 will indeed be known as the year of the CVA.

The ground breaking JJB turnaround has now been followed by the high profile cases Focus/Do It All, Discover Leisure and Blacks and with potential changes to the CVA procedure under consultation, I would expect this tool to increase in popularity as an alternative to administration in the years to come. Naturally there has been a lot of press and comment around the use of CVAs and an interview with myself, discussing the topic is included below.

Looking more broadly at the economy and our marketplace, whilst we have seen a steady stream of high profile assignments, the autumn has been a period of relative calm throughout the UK. Is this the calm before the storm? If you consider the continuing challenges in retail and manufacturing, rising unemployment, changes in the stance of HMRC, upcoming tax rises and the certainty of severely curtailed public sector spending, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that we are about to experience a significant increase in restructuring activity.

In this update we focus on two of these issues - Public Sector spending and HMRC. The impact of both will be significant in the coming months and our clients need to be prepared for them. Read the full articles below.

In addition, in this update, we also include a high level summary of our annual cash and working capital survey and turn the spotlight on Retail Financial Services in our latest Sector Foresight. As usual, we also include a range of recent assignments from around the UK.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any aspect of this update or other restructuring issues.