Services for Companies
Benedict Mackenzie specialises in business rescue, recovery and turnaround. We deal with businesses from the very large to the very small, advising directors who are struggling to keep their companies alive.
Our priority is to turn around struggling businesses. If it is not possible to turnaround your business, we can still work with you to find the best solution for you and the other stakeholders in your business.
Benedict Mackenzie has a proven track record in identifying the needs of failing businesses and we recognise that each situation is unique, so you will be advised on a solution that is tailor made to help you whilst also being fair to your creditors, employees and your customers.
Much of our work comes from word of mouth recommendations and our approach is widely recognised as efficient and trustworthy.
If you are trying to raise cash to take your business forward, or to see you through a temporary cash shortage, we can carry out pre-lending reviews, independent financial reviews and stock finance audits which will assist you in your approaches to potential lenders.
You will always be advised by a partner personally. You can be assured that you will have the most experienced individuals helping you and your business. It will not cost you the earth either; our charges are competitive and affordable.
There are many options available to businesses with financial problems; Benedict Mackenzie will offer best advice on those available to you:
Business survival with you in control:
- Trading out
If your business has a viable future, despite your current difficult financial circumstances, you may be able to ‘trade out’ of your situation.Benedict Mackenzie can advise you how to secure some ‘breathing space’ to review your business strategy, markets and operation, which may help to secure your business’s long-term survival.
- Refinancing
Refinancing usually involves raising additional finance, either against the assets of the business and/or in the form of an equity stake in the business.Benedict Mackenzie will help you examine whether this is the right approach for your business at the moment and if so, the different options which will be of most benefit to your company. We can then signpost you to the most suitable of the many sources of finance available in the market.
Where your company can be identified as having a profitable future, a formal contract, negotiated between your company and your creditors to pay back all or part of your debts out of future trading profits, could preserve the business.Benedict Mackenzie will help you to both negotiate an agreement with your creditors and to deal with the relevant court applications to formalise it. We would also monitor any agreement you come to, to ensure it is carried out in order to give creditors the security of expert supervision. Our experience in helping put together well-structured CVAs could mean the survival of your company.
- Informal arrangement
This is similar to a CVA (above), but the business would not enjoy the protection of a court order. It is an informal agreement between your company and your creditors for you to pay back all or part of your debts over a set time period.Benedict Mackenzie will be able to help you broker a ‘deal’ and monitor its progress on behalf of your creditors.
Business survival with someone else in control:
- Administration
Administration is an application made to the court to suspend payment of a company’s debts to give it some breathing space while a strategy for going forward is put in place. The legislation for this procedure has recently been overhauled and the Government hopes this will lead to the survival of more businesses.Benedict Mackenzie will prepare the application to Court on your behalf and will then advise on the options for the future; these can be:
- business survival as a going concern
- a voluntary arrangement with your creditors which will ensure the survival of the business
- the disposal of assets or the business in such a way that the company receives the maximum amount possible.
Business closure initiated by you:
If you and any other shareholders choose to wind up your company when it is solvent and you have enough money to pay all of your debts within one year, you can choose to put the company into a Members’ voluntary liquidation.An MVL is mainly used for three purposes;
- The shareholders to unlock their capital and retire
- A corporate reconstruction, including where shareholders wish to split and take component parts of the business in different directions
- To close down an unwanted subsidiary or to cease a joint venture.
Benedict Mackenzie can advise you of the best way to wind up the company, to settle your creditors and distribute the remaining assets among the shareholders in the most tax efficient way.
If your company does not have enough money to pay all of its debts and its business is no longer viable, the directors and shareholders may decide that a Creditors’ voluntary liquidation is the only option. This process allows creditors to establish their claims against the company and to be paid out of the assets if at all possible, in an orderly way.Benedict Mackenzie will help you through the process of putting your company into liquidation. We will find the most beneficial way of selling any assets and will distribute any surplus funds to the creditors. We will wind up all contracts and legal issues and ensure your company is taken off the register at Companies House.
Business closure initiated by a third party:
The Court may make an order for the compulsory winding up of a company if a person who is owed over £750 and has not been paid, petitions the Court for such an order This will usually be done by a trade creditor, a government tax authority or even one of the directors, to whom your company owes money. If an order is made, the Official Receiver will be responsible for supervising the winding up, or he may ask the creditors to appoint an insolvency practitioner to act as liquidator.Benedict Mackenzie can advise you if a petition forcompulsory liquidation has been lodged against your company. We will help you to oppose or appeal against the petition if appropriate, or will take you through the winding up process if the petition is successful.
Not to be confused with the process of Administration, a receivership arises if an organisation (usually a bank) with a charge over the assets of a company as security for money lent to it, appoints an Administrative Receiver to recover the debt on its behalf. This can arise when the borrowing company has defaulted on its payments. The company will have to be put into liquidation at a later stage, as the Administrative Receiver is not authorised to deal with the claims of ordinary creditors.
Additional services
- Independent financial reviews
Benedict Mackenzie offers independent financial reviews of an organisation to third parties having an interest in the business whether as a shareholder, lender, creditor or director. Our partners have a good relationship with the clearing banks and many other financial institutions, have carried out many independent reports for lenders and are well versed in assessing a business’s viability.The review will concentrate on the financial position and future prosperity of an organisation but will also include assessment of the cash requirements of the business and the suitability of management.These reviews if carried out as early as possible may result in corrective action being taken that avoids formal insolvency.
- Financial health check
Benedict Mackenzie aims to provide businesses of all sizes with a personalised, practical and commercial, independent assessment. We also provide recommendations on a business’s operational efficiency in management, cashflow and forward planning.We will visit your business location(s) and speak to key individuals to fully understand your business, its systems, new ideas, specific concerns and the current financial position. We may also require documentary information. All of this information will then by reviewed by us and our conclusions and recommendations will be provided to the business either at a meeting or by written report, or both depending on your request.