A fascinating exchange yesterday at Advancy headquarters where we had the pleasure of co-hosting a unique event on the Stressed and Distressed M&A Market in 2025. It successfully brought together over 120 industry professionals.
With Mayday and the superb facilitation of Lisa Ducani, president of AJR association des jeunes professionnels du restructuring, we brought together a panel of tier-one investment bankers, lawyers, and strategy consultants:
– Jean-Francois CIZAIN and Emmanuel Civeyrac from Messier & Associés
– Jean-Dominique Daudier de Cassini and Céline Domenget-Morin from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
– Eric de Bettignies, Laurence-Anne Parent and myself representing Advancy
Three main takeaways from our discussions to share with you:
– Some sectors are heading into 2025 with significant stress risks: chemicals will be facing Chinese dumping after energy inflation years, also all sectors having large physical network, such as healthcare and retail, construction will also be under scrutiny in spite of their reserves made during 2022/23 years. These situations will create lots of rebound opportunities for financing parties, hedge and strategic players.
– Against this backdrop, markets are getting very selective, where winners will take-it-all and losers will heavily suffer: average business models will no longer suffice.
That’s why, at our event, Eric expressed the profound conviction shared by Advancy’s teams: to get through this, we need to embark on far-reaching strategic transformations, going beyond financial restructuring. The proof is in the pudding and notable cases where mentioned such as Vallourec and groupe PVCP and the REINVENTION plan we have drawn together with them.
– Lastly, greater focus is needed on the assessment of these stressed companies rebound strategies and the calibration of their financial consequences. This is the only way to ensure the necessary balance between the various players (creditors, shareholders, management). We believe more than ever in the need for concerted action between the players, driven by this rigorous assessment, in the service of successful industrial rebounds. We are up to this challenge with the team and our peers.
Back to work!
And of course, a special thanks to Lisa Ducani, president of AJR association des jeunes professionnels du restructuring, for thoughtfully moderating the discussion.