When the conversation turns to liquidity.
When a business faces financial distress, the quality of its advisors determines the range of outcomes available to it. Speed matters because liquidity does not wait. Credibility matters because lenders and creditors respond to advisors they respect.
Cohen Capital Markets advises borrowers, sponsors, and management teams through liquidity pressure, lender negotiations, and operational turnaround. The work is partner-led from the first thirteen-week cash flow through to the stabilization that closes the restructuring. The firm is in the room with the borrower; the firm is at the table with the lender group.
The firm's independence in restructuring is structural and absolute: we do not represent lenders in the same transactions we advise borrowers. The boundary is published, it is unconditional, and it is the reason borrowers can hand the firm sensitive financial information without reservation.
"We do not represent lenders in the same transactions we advise borrowers — our independence in each engagement is absolute."
Six restructuring capabilities.
Liquidity Analysis
Thirteen-week cash flow forecasting, sources-and-uses construction, and the liquidity diagnostic that sits beneath every restructuring decision. The cash-runway analysis the board and the lenders both see.
Lender & Creditor Negotiations
Direct engagement with the lender group, ad-hoc creditor committees, and individual creditors. Forbearance, waivers, amendments, and the negotiated path to a sustainable capital structure.
Out-of-Court Restructuring
Negotiated restructurings that avoid Chapter 11 — amendments, exchanges, recapitalizations, and consensual deleveraging. The path that preserves enterprise value when the conditions support it.
Chapter 11 Financial Advisory
In-court financial advisory through DIP financing, plan of reorganization, valuation, claims analysis, and exit financing. The firm runs the financial side of the case with the partner in the room.
Asset Sale Advisory (§363)
Section 363 asset sales — stalking-horse bidder identification, auction process management, asset-by-asset valuation, and the §363 sale procedures that protect maximum recovery.
Operational Turnaround
Working-capital improvement, cost-structure reset, vendor and customer renegotiation, and the operating discipline that converts the restructuring into a sustainable run-rate.
Six steps, run at restructuring speed.
Liquidity Assessment
Thirteen-week cash flow built in the first ten days. The honest read on runway, lender posture, and the timing of the conversations that have to happen.
Strategic Alternatives Analysis
The named set of restructuring paths — out-of-court, pre-packaged, in-court, §363 sale, hybrid — sized to the situation and the lender group's likely posture.
Creditor & Lender Engagement
Initial outreach to the lender group, forbearance and standstill negotiation, and the constructive dialogue that holds the lenders engaged through the development of the plan.
Restructuring Plan Development
The plan of reorganization or out-of-court term sheet — capital structure, governance, releases, exit financing, and the operational covenants that survive the restructure.
Out-of-Court or In-Court Execution
Execution discipline through documentation, regulatory and court approvals, financing, and emergence — with the partner in every materially consequential meeting.
Stabilization & Recovery
Post-emergence stabilization through the first ninety days, including lender relationship management, operational discipline reinforcement, and the early-quarter cadence that closes the restructuring.
Three diagnostic indicators of a workout window.
A restructuring window opens when three indicators align. When all three are present, the company has both the need and the operating runway to pursue a constructive restructuring. When fewer are present, the engagement looks different — closer to operational turnaround, or closer to a §363 sale path. The partner-brief discipline is to diagnose all three before the plan is built.
Liquidity runway.
Enough cash, or credible bridge financing, to operate the business through the restructuring period. The thirteen-week forecast is the diagnostic; the bridge is the difference between a workout and a liquidation.
Lender posture.
The willingness of the lender group to engage constructively rather than enforce immediately. The posture is shaped by the borrower's credibility, the strength of the operating plan, and the value preserved by a workout versus the alternative.
Operational distress level.
The gap between the company's current operating reality and the run-rate that supports the restructured capital structure. Bridgeable through operational discipline alone, through cost reset, or only through a structural change in the business.
Four common restructuring situations.
A company facing a thirteen-week liquidity event.
Cash forecasts have turned tight. The next covenant test is approaching. The board wants partner-led financial advisory in the room before the lender conversation, not after.
A borrower entering forbearance or amendment discussions.
The lender group has signaled it wants to talk. The borrower wants the firm to handle the negotiation — the financial analysis, the term-sheet design, and the relationships that decide whether the amendment closes.
A sponsor evaluating in-court versus out-of-court paths.
Both paths are real. The sponsor wants an independent analysis of which preserves more value, costs less time, and produces a more sustainable post-emergence capital structure. The firm produces the comparison.
A management team running a §363 sale process.
The decision has been made to pursue an in-court sale. The firm runs the stalking-horse process, the auction mechanics, and the bidder management — and stays in the room from filing through closing.
Read more from the firm.
Plainly answered.
When is the right time to engage the firm?
As early as the conversation has turned to liquidity. Engagement earlier widens the available outcomes; engagement later narrows them. The firm prefers to be in the room before the next covenant test, before the lender outreach call, and before the next board meeting that will be dominated by the question.
Does the firm represent lenders?
Not in the same transactions where we advise borrowers. The firm's restructuring independence is structural and unconditional. We represent the borrower, the sponsor of the borrower, or the management team — and only the borrower's side — in every restructuring engagement.
How long does a typical restructuring run?
Out-of-court restructurings typically run three to six months from engagement through close. In-court Chapter 11 cases run six to fifteen months depending on case complexity. Section 363 sales run on accelerated timelines — typically sixty to ninety days from filing through closing.
Does the firm execute the securities work itself?
No. Cohen Capital Markets is not a registered broker-dealer. Where the engagement involves securities execution, the matter is referred to a separate, unaffiliated FINRA/SIPC-registered broker-dealer partner. Cohen Capital Markets and such partners are separate, unaffiliated entities.