Martin Alsander meets TMA Sweden to discuss the reconstruction of Stampen

On 6 April TMA members and guests had the opportunity to gather at PwC’s office in Gothenburg to listen to Stampen CEO Martin Alsander. After introductions by the hosts for the evening, Magnus Götenfelt, PwC and Tove Rosén Johansson, TMA Sweden, Martin gave a short presentation on the lessons learned from the reconstruction the company went through during 2016. 

The core activities in the Stampen Group are the Gothenburg-based daily Göteborgs-Posten and the printing group V-TAB. After many years of acquisitions the Group had acquired substantial debt and after a couple of tough years for the paper and printing business, Stampen began its operational turnaround during 2014-2015. But divesting 25 companies and entities, closing four printing facilities and reducing the number of employees was not enough.

The final blow to Stampen was the court decision for printers to hand-back the printed related VAT to customers when VAT rules changed. Stampen had to roll-out “Plan B” to take the Group through a substantial reconstruction, with 16 companies, 7 courts, 3000 employees and renegotiation of SEK 880 million in debt. 

All was well prepared for the reconstruction and Martin concluded that “we could not have done this any faster”. Reconstruction began formally on 23 May 2016 and by end-October Stampen could exit the reconstruction and could by end of 2016 raise new equity. 

After the presentation, the moderator, Peter Björnram TMA Sweden, opened for discussions. Given that many of the people involved were present the discussion could take different stakeholders perspectives and give a nuanced perspective – present were Peter Hjörne, chair, Christian Andersch, administrator, Kristina Brandt, CFO and Claes Jonson, who played a significant role in the re-financing. The discussion became a workshop on reconstruction best practices. 

Martin concluded with a couple of important points:

• Prepare and plan well – work with different scenarios and involve stakeholders early. Only then can you be as flexible as needed. All things will not go according to plan, but the better you are prepared the more likely you will be successful
• Cash is king – and manage for it! Many suppliers are not used to receiving cash payments, so preparation of a “cash only culture” is needed.
• Communicate clearly and regularly – involve suppliers early on. Keep a regular pace. Speak the truth and have one key spokesperson.
• Speed, speed, speed – the pace of execution is of utmost importance to succeed. Being in reconstruction is not good for a company.

Fredrik Vernersson, President TMA Sweden

Martin Alsander, VD Stampen, redogör för rekonstruktionen

Intresserade åhörare

Ett femtiotal medlemmar och gäster deltar i debatten

TMA Sweden anordnade lunchseminarium 21 mars

TMA Sweden anordnade, för första gången i Stockholm, ett event i form av lunchseminarium den 21 mars.

Inledningsvis berättade Nils Åberg, advokat och styrelseledamot i TMA Sweden, kort om TMA och dess kommande event. Därefter presenterade Mikael Kubu, rekonstruktör och koncernchef för Ackordscentralen samt Göran Kullenberg, fristående konsult, möjligheterna att utnyttja uppkomna skattemässiga underskott för att finansiera omstruktureringar, särskilt vid företagsrekonstruktion. En viktig lärdom var att det gäller att få in en ackordsvinst på rätt räkenskapsår och att störst möjligheter att utnyttja möjligheten att kapitalisera på underskott finns i bolag med tillgångar med höga bokförda värden men låga marknadsvärden vid en rekonstruktion, t.ex. inom industrin.

Mikael och Göran berättade vidare om ett antal praktiska fall där detta tillämpats, bl.a. den spännande historien om rekonstruktionen av Copperhill i Åre. Alla som deltog i, det helt fullbokade, seminariet kommer få presentationen skickad till sig i PDF-format.

Ett särskilt tack till dagens generösa värd Ackordscentralen som bjöd på lunchen!

Mikael Kubu och Göran Kullenberg

Välbesökt föredrag om förslag till nya rekonstruktionsregler, 9 mars

Den 9 mars anordnade TMA Sweden  ett välbesökt evenemang hos Advokatfirman Carler i Stockholm med anledning av de förslag till ändringar om reglerna för företagsrekonstruktion som följer av den s.k. Entreprenörsskapsutredningen.

Advokat Mats Emthén och professor Annina Persson, som båda var inkopplade i utredningen, höll ett intressant föredrag om de viktigaste förslagen gällande rekonstruktioner som läggs fram i utredningen. Flera frågeställningar föranledde givande diskussioner med den  talrika publiken. Efter det uppskattade föredraget bjöd kvällens värd, Advokatfirman Carler, på förfriskningar och goda tilltugg.

Mats Emthén och Annina Persson

Christmas Cocktail with Gregg Vanourek

TMA Sweden held its annual Christmas Cocktail at the Radison Blu Hotel, Stockholm Waterfront, on the 6th of December. As usual, there was opportunity to mingle and get to know other members better.

This year, the Cocktail was combined with a truly inspiring speech by the acclaimed author Gregg Vanourek. Gregg provided the participants with excellent food for thought, about finding balance and what is really important in life. He also gave good advice how to recognize and avoid the common traps of business and personal life. All in all, Gregg's motivational speech will surely be remembered by the participating members.

TMA Sweden wishes all of its members a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We will be back in 2017 with several exciting events.

Stories from the field – TMA Sweden members sharing their experiences

30 interested TMA Sweden members met at Mannheimer Swartling’s Stockholm office on November 17 to learn and discuss from other turnaround professionals. Three members provided cases to learn from.

The story tellers sharing their experience (from left to right): Hans Lindén, Ulla Hemmi-Adolfsson and Carl Brodén.

Hans Lindén started out, sharing his experience from turning around a SEK 500 million turnover company during a 12 month time. The challenge was that the company had delivery and quality problems at the same time as production had been moved from Sweden to Eastern Europe. With a background from larger organizations in the steel industry and within ABB, Hans could bring a lot of stability to the organization. What was needed was a change of culture and Hans drove the change from the bottom with a change of behavior, introducing lean methods, daily production meetings, etc.

A lesson learned was that to change the culture, the behaviors needed to change – and the lean toolbox (with a lot of persistence) proved to do just that.

Carl Brodén, from Roschier, shared his experiences of cultural clashes in a coupl of negotiation situations. First was a case of a Leveraged Buy-Out which went through a reconstruction. The mezzanine bond-holder took a very aggressive stance in the negotiations. The tone was not very productive and in the end the more senior lenders managed to secure their own debts whereas the mezzanine holder ended up with losing access to all securities.

The second case was a case of cultural clash between countries. After a change of ownership a company ended up with a Russian owner, but with the lenders being Swedish. There was a lot of mistrust between the parties and also quite inflexible stances on the negotiation position. In the end, the parties found out each other’s objective, which resulted in a debt to equity swap that eventually gave the senior lending banks a good return on rather than bailing out as was a possible outcome.

The lessons learned from this case, was that it is always good to listen and learn, as well as that some creativity to structure a company (and its debt) can sometime end up with a better solution for all parties involved.

Lastly, but not least, Ulla Hemmi-Adolfsson, from Altelate Consulting, presented her experience, when leading the IBM Technical Services in Sweden during a year. Ulla and her team had to start the year with some cost overruns from previous year and it did not look to good. Ulla increased the transparency and raised the awareness among the consulting staff of the situation. Changing the culture into a business-minded focus was needed to get everyone contributing to sales and business development. She concluded that to get back to “black and back on track” she needed to look both short term and long term – in the short term, the organization to on consulting projects that were good for business in the short run, but she also had to ensure the organization found a strong focus for the future.

After the presentations, the host of the evening, Beth Topolovsky, Stinson partners moderated the discussion. After the formal part, the group moved over to mingling and enjoying the hospitality of Mannheimer Swartling – many thanks to Christoffer Monell, for making this possible.

Report from Value Creation Strategies in Retail event, 4 October, Stockholm

Presentation by Heinz Weber, Chairman of Gordon Brothers Europe

Nils Åberg of TMA Sweden provided a warm introduction to Heinz Weber who is the Chairman of Gordon Brothers Europe. Heinz career has included roles in commercial banking, restructuring advisory and portfolio workout roles which has led neatly to his current role with Gordon Brothers. The 100 year old firm provides a service which includes advising lenders, owners and management teams on value realization strategies but also implementing those strategies and providing a guarantee of the financial outcome of their projects.

Heinz explained two themes which are driving distress in retail. Successful retailers are always tempted to expand abroad but retailing remains a very local business and this means that many retailers follow their international expansion strategy with a requirement to exit from the countries where they have been unsuccessful. The other main trend is the increasing digitalization of retail with shoppers increasingly using multiple channels (e.g. apps and physical stores) to complete their purchase or interaction with a retailer. Those retailers which are not adapting their business model either have to catch up quickly or will end up in serious trouble.

The critical factor which Gordon Brothers look for when assessing a challenged retailer is the brand. As long as brand value remains, there is a possibility to reinvent the business. After the brand, Gordon Brothers look to the value of the stock including stock which the retailer has not yet taken into its own premises but is sitting somewhere in the supply chain and intended for delivery to the retailer. Unlike traditional insolvency practitioners, Gordon Brothers will look to the potential value that can be realized from existing stock and by pulling through the stock which has not yet been delivered.

Critical to Gordon Brothers approach is employing experienced sales and operations staff who have to have been through a personal “crucible moment” – as Heinz so colourfully called it – where they have faced a crisis in their business and chosen the tough path of reacting and working through the crisis rather than walking away.

Heinz then told the story of a number of case studies across Europe and covering different types of retailers such as traditional department stores, DIY stores and fashion retailers. These cases ranged from maximising realisations from an exit to restructuring the business model of a branded clothes retailer to a virtual company which managed brands and franchise arrangements.

In his final remarks, Heinz summarized the Gordon Brothers approach in three points:

1.       Deliver superior operating results

2.       Asset realization – always beat the clients expectations

3.       Remove the volatility in the outcome statement for the retailer

Following this compelling presentation the members and presenters were generously provided with drinks and sustenance from our kind host, Jonas Rickardsson of PwC. 

TMA Europe Distressed Investing Event, 28 September, London

President's letter

Bästa medlemmar,

Sommaren och värmen har kommit till vårt land och TMA Sweden lägger ytterligare ett halvår till handlingarna – ett halvår som representerar ett nytt högvattenmärke för aktivitetsnivån och engagemanget bland medlemmarna

Summering av våren 2016

Under våren har vi genomfört sex stycken intressanta evenemang, med hög kvalitet på talare och paneldebattörer och stort intresse bland medlemmarna:

Först ut var en paneldebatt med temat ”Företagsobligationer i företag med ekonomiska problem” 10 februari i Göteborg. Därefter, 17 februari, en paneldebatt i Stockholm om turnaround inom Retail. 20 april, i samband med årsmötet, hade vi en roundtable om hur vi kan göra TMA Sweden bättre – mer om en del idéer nedan. 17 maj hade vi en paneldebatt om betalningsvilja ”Can’t pay – won’t pay” i Stockholm. Därefter en paneldebatt 26 maj på toppen av ”läppstiftet” i Göteborg. Förutom magnifik utsikt, fick vi nya perspektiv på detaljhandeln och dess utmaningar. Till sist så avslutades terminens aktiviteter 8 juni med vår traditionella sommardrink. Mer om de evenemang som varit och med korta referat på vår hemsida http://www.tmasweden.se/news/

Programmet för hösten 2016

Programmet för hösten är ännu inte helt satt, men i slutet av september/ början av oktober i Stockholm så räknar vi med att få ett utländskt perspektiv med hjälp av TMA Europes sponsor Gordon Brothers, som har en bred portfölj av tjänster som kan vara intressant för oss som jobbar med turnarounds. 20 oktober har vi en roundtable i Stockholm för medlemmar – temat är ”framgångsfaktorer inom turnaround” där vi kan lära av varandra. I slutet av november ska vi få ett perspektiv på den då nyligen avrapporterade utredningen ”Utveckling av innovations- och entreprenörsklimatet”, som bland annat berör hur rekonstruktionslagstiftningen kan förbättras – ett rykande aktuellt ämne som vi hoppas kunna ge mer insikt i. Givetvis kommer vi också att ha vår traditionella juldrink i början av december.

För våra aktiviteter i Göteborg är ännu inga datum satta, men första evenemanget för hösten är tänkt att beröra finansieringsaspekten av en turnaround – mer information alldeles snart.

På vår roundtable i april kom det bland annat fram idéer om nya sätt att träffas – mer fallstudier, middagar, möjlighet att genomföra företagsspel, med mera. Stor inspiration för oss i styrelsen!

Som alltid håller man sig bäst uppdaterad med hjälp av hemsidan http://www.tmasweden.se/calendar/

TMA Sweden i Göteborg

Vår arbetsgrupp i Göteborg börjar nu bli varm i kläderna. Under ledning av Peter Björnram, MAQS och med hjälp av Christoffer Monell, MSA, Tove Rosén Johansson, Wistrand, Sofia Regestad, Hammarviken samt undertecknad Fredrik Vernersson från TMA Swedens styrelse, så börjar programidéer formas och vi har också attraherat ett antal nya medlemmar. För den som vill veta mer, har förslag på aktiviteter eller är intresserad av att ingå i arbetsgruppen finns det stora möjligheter – kontakta någon i arbetsgruppen för en diskussion.

Medlemskap i TMA Sweden – inte enbart i Sverige!

Som medlem i TMA Sweden har du tillgång till alla våra möten utan deltagaravgift. Vid lite större evenemang som middagar så förstår ni säkert att själva middagskostnaden tillkommer. Dessutom får ni tillgång till hela TMA worldwide. Om ni inte tittat på hemsidan så rekommenderar jag att ni loggar in på medlemssidorna där – ni kan få tag på TMA medlemmar i hela världen!  Mer information på https://turnaround.org/

I TMA Europa samarbetar vi tätt och jag kan rekommendera att delta i något annat kapitels evenemang eller några av det flertal konferenser som anordnas, nu närmast Distressed Investing i London 28 september. Mer information på http://www.tma-europe.org/

Offentliga profiler på våra medlemmar

Vi vill gärna visa på den bredd och det stora kunnandet som finns hos våra medlemmar. Därför erbjuder vi våra medlemmar att lägga upp sin profil på vår hemsida. Varje medlem kan där lägga ut en kort profil tillsammans med ett foto. Se de profiler som finns på
http://www.tmasweden.se/list-of-members/

Notera vänligen att TMA Sweden inte kommer att lägga ut någon information om enskild medlem utan dennes godkännande. Om du vill vara med i medlemsmatrikeln, e-posta vänligen IT och webb-ansvarig Nils Åberg nils.aberg@carler.se en helt kort beskrivning av dig själv, gärna tillsammans med ditt fotografi och eventuell firmalogotyp.

Styrelsen

Styrelsen har beslutat att till sig adjungera Annika Muskantor, Frideborgs. Annika är interim CFO och Chief Strategy officer med intressanta uppdrag. Hon kommer att tillföra styrelsen värdefulla erfarenheter. Peter Björnram, MAQS, som leder TMA Swedens etablering i Göteborg är nu också invald i styrelsen på senaste årsmötet. I övrigt består styrelsen av: Jonas Cunningham, EY, Niklas Körling, Wistrand, Krister Levin, Advokatbyrån Nova, Michael Maccallum, Deloitte, Beth Topolovsky, Stinson Partners, Nils Åberg, Carler samt undertecknad Fredrik Vernersson, McKinsey & Company RTS.

Som vanligt tar vi tacksamt emot kommentarer och förslag – skicka mig gärna ett mail på e-postadress nedan eller ring mig på mobilen.

Till sist önskar vi alla medlemmar en skön och varm sommar!

Fredrik Vernersson
President, TMA Sweden
Fellow, European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals (EACTP)
Email: vernersson@tmasweden.se
Mobil: +46 708 96 95 84