Client Profile
The Company was a large German media group operating across television production, broadcasting, digital media, advertising and content distribution. The business maintained significant market share in secondary markets and valuable intellectual property, but a rapid shift in advertising revenues toward digital platforms, declining traditional media revenues and substantial content-production commitments placed increasing pressure on profitability and liquidity. The Company had approximately €310 million of financial debt, together with significant lease, production and contractual obligations. A combination of declining advertising revenues, higher financing costs and several upcoming debt maturities created a material risk that the Company would become unable to meet its obligations as they fell due. Importantly, the underlying business remained viable. Management and the Board therefore sought to implement a restructuring solution that would preserve enterprise value while avoiding the disruption and reputational consequences of formal insolvency proceedings.
Key Challenges
- Approximately €310 million of financial debt
- Significant upcoming debt maturities
- Declining traditional advertising revenues
- Structural migration from traditional to digital media
- High fixed operating and content-production costs
- Substantial contractual commitments
- Pressure on EBITDA and free cash flow
- Multiple creditor groups with differing economic interests
- Limited time to complete a consensual refinancing
- Risk of value destruction through formal insolvency proceedings
Our Mandate
The restructuring strategy was designed to use Germany's StaRUG (Unternehmensstabilisierungs-und–restrukturierungsgesetz) framework selectively, combining negotiations with creditors and a court-supported restructuring process where necessary.
- Restructuring Feasibility Assessment
- Integrated Restructuring Plan
- Stakeholder & Creditor Negotiations
- Debt Restructuring
- StaRUG Proceedings
- Operational Transformation
- New Capital Acquisition
Results
The StaRUG restructuring successfully stabilized the Company without requiring a traditional insolvency proceeding and substantially reduced the Company's near-term financial burden while preserving its operating platform and key intellectual property.
- €125 million reduction in financial debt
- €70 million of new capital secured
- Approximately 50% reduction in annual interest expense
- Significant extension of debt maturities
- Restructuring of financial obligations through the StaRUG framework
- Preservation of the Company's core media and intellectual-property assets
- Reduction in structural operating costs
- Accelerated transition toward digital revenue streams
- Continued operation of the business throughout the restructuring
- Creation of a substantially stronger capital structure for future growth
Client Outcomes
Successfully utilizing the StaRUG framework to restructure its balance sheet while preserving the underlying enterprise. The combination of preventive restructuring, creditor negotiations, debt restructuring, new capital and operational transformation allowed the Company to avoid formal insolvency, preserve critical media assets and emerge with a sustainable capital structure capable of supporting its transition toward a digitally focused business model.
RCP engagements are tailored to the facts, stakeholders and objectives of each situation.
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