Let's start a new convo on what signs you should look for in a looming bankruptcy situation. I'll offer mine from my experience in a ch11 scenario @ my former employer (restructure type, not insolvency). None of this is guaranteed to end in Ch7 but these are some of the odd/outside the norm things I remember:
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Vendors were paid late - net30 vendors started stretching to 120 days
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Mgmt team pushing you to get very long dating from all vendors (started about 1yr before filing)
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Lockdown on data share with vendors (all KPIs) - noticed this started about 3mo before)
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Push for vendors to ship as many goods as soon as possible/early (noticed this apprx 1-2mo before)
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Lots of change at C-level - New team experience managing a co thru bankruptcy (wasn't easy to research back then (before internet) but google. What's their experience? Are they touted as a "fixer"?
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Vendors can't get credit insurance on payables or harder to get (driven off Moody/S&P credit rating)
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New store openings halt (but store closings may not happen in masse until after filing)
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Lots of closed door meetings at GMM level & up. My SVP & DMM were not involved in these mtgs nor did they know about the filing way beforehand. It was kept tight to the vest, until the Fri before (filed on Mon) & I only found out because someone leaked it
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People from Private Equity Co (so KKR) in the building often, or people you don't know in building often (this was a much smaller co, so may be harder to spot at ASO)
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Any Office perks either went away or a charge/increased charge for them (noticed this about a year before)
What else, for those of you who have been thru a Bankruptcy???