Liquidity and lender-information reset for a sponsor-backed services company

A services platform had completed several acquisitions without integrating finance processes. Reporting arrived late, working capital deteriorated and covenant headroom was narrowing.

The platform remained commercially viable, but the absence of a direct cash forecast and integrated reporting made every stakeholder discussion reactive. Stabilisation had to occur while management continued integration and normal operations.

The company’s immediate problem was tightening headroom, but the underlying problem was credibility. Management, the sponsor and lenders were working from different versions of cash and covenant performance, and each new surprise reduced the willingness of stakeholders to rely on the next forecast. In that environment, a restructuring presentation would have been less valuable than a cash model that reconciled week after week.

The first workstream therefore stabilised the information: a direct 13-week cash forecast, covenant bridge and weekly variance process. Only then were operating levers, working-capital actions and refinancing alternatives sequenced. The stakeholder pack was built from the same model management used internally so there was no separate lender narrative that drifted away from operating reality.