Crisis Management

We help our clients master the crisis situation, eliminate a high degree of risk and uncertainty, which will enable them to manage the majority of undesirable processes and control the current developments by means of providing unbiased feedback on the causes of the crisis, presenting ideas and implementing the step-by-step plans of overcoming the crisis.

Identification of the Causes of the Crisis and Evaluation of Prospects

More and more often in our work we see the examples of responsible management in businesses of our clients from the CIS states. In crisis situations, this becomes especially manifest when the owners and/or top managers of the company ask us to discover the real causes of the current crisis situation, and the results of “self-diagnosis” no longer constitute unconditional guidelines for action. Frequently, an opportunity to see the situation from outside stimulates our clients to enter a new stage of reflections and generation of ideas concerning reaction to the existing situation.

Integrites international team consists of highly qualified lawyers as well as business consultants and analysts, which fact enables us to analyze a crisis situation from different angles – legal, financial, and market points of view. Clients often find advantages in this since such approach diminishes the risk of missing some substantial factor when formulating the general description of the crisis.

Therefore, the clients entrust us with analyzing both internal (management, market, production) and external (social and economic factors of general development of the country, market factors, regulator factors, etc.) causes of the crisis. We use the received information for analyzing the market position and evaluation of further prospects of business functioning in the current market conditions taking into consideration the most probable scenarios.

Such evaluation often constitutes an important component of decision making by the owner concerning the future of the business, since opinions and speculations which frequently cause deterioration of the crisis situation are replaced with figures and facts.

Business Optimization for Eliminating Causes of the Crisis

When the owners and/or top managers begin to understand the real causes of the crisis and the current market position of the company, a question emerges as to the need to introduce changes to the respective spheres of business. In this case, clients often ask us to solve problems related to:

• optimization of business structures in order to decrease the financial expenses of its maintenances by decreasing the tax load, production expenses, increasing the competitive power of the products by means of simplification of the system of interaction with contractors, etc.;
• increased efficiency of the asset use;
• optimization of financial flows;
• revision of contractual relations with business partners;
• optimization of the conditions of work with the debtors;
• optimization of the conditions related to fulfillment of undertakings through accounts payable restructuring;
• optimization in the system of management and labour resources;
• increased efficiency of internal business processes.

Withdrawal from Business or Separation of Part of Business

If the owner makes a decision to withdraw from business or separate a part of business, the sphere of our responsibilities includes assistance to the client in the issues related to:

• identification of an adequate value of business or a part thereof;
• preparation of business for sale (optimization of assets, maximum curtail of liabilities to the third parties, technical preparation of business for the change of control, separation from other business areas);
• identification of a correct order of actions from the point of view of recording the agreements, regulating the current commitments, calculations, and transfer of the title to a new owner;
• securing conditions when the relations are preserved with strategic partners and clients (issues related to competition);
• proper presentation of information about the changed management of the company to the employees and creditors (if necessary);
• accounting of the funds received from the sale of business;
• selection of a suitable jurisdiction for registration of the transactions, transfer of funds, etc.

Termination of Activities

When making a decision on termination of activities, the owner has to pay proper attention to several questions, without which such decision cannot be considered properly contemplated. In such projects, clients often turn to us for assistance in supporting the process of business liquidation, bankruptcy or sale procedures.

Our key task with regard to the owner’s making a decision on business liquidation is to demonstrate him a real picture concerning the ratio between the liabilities to the third parties and the assets currently available to the business. Thus, when clients invite us as an external advisor in the liquidation process, we concentrate the maximum attention on such aspects of company activities as fulfillment of liabilities to the third parties and payments to the creditors; when the company belongs to a group, it is important to regulate the internal group relations (issues related to loans, production processes, etc.). It is also important to pay attention to regulation of relations with employees (issues related to termination of labour relations, staff redundancy, etc.) and preparation of business for state inspections in terms of minimization of risks of penal sanctions, and the like.

Careful preparation, timely fulfillment of the aforementioned tasks and taking other necessary steps depending on the current situation, help our client keep the internal peace and confidence in his decisions and avoid mistakes related to saving the decent business reputation.