David Kelly
Performance and Restructuring Partner, UK Head of Insolvency
London, PwC United Kingdom
David is a partner in the London Performance and Restructuring Team where he helps to support shareholders, management teams, lenders, bondholders and government clients to act rapidly and preserve value in financially stressed scenarios.
David has primarily focused on advising, leading and delivering UK and International restructuring, contingency planning and insolvency assignments where the corporate is showing signs of distress. The days of an adviser focusing on a narrow range of stakeholders are over and his experience reflects the diversity of stakeholders a corporate must now manage having supported Boards of Directors, the UK Government, Clearing Banks and High Yield Bondholders. His roles helping organisations to restructure and recover have been varied. While the majority of cases have been successfully restructured away from the public spotlight that gets cast on formal insolvency cases, there are also instances where insolvency was chosen by the directors as the tool to deliver the restructuring outcome.
Whilst the inflation and interest rate environments are becoming more stable than they were previously there are a significant array of challenges many corporates are facing from increasingly high operating costs, supply chain disruption, overleveraged balance sheets and business models that need to evolve to reflect changing consumer behaviour and the impact of AI.
One of the recent developments across the global restructuring market has been the emergence of liability management process to enable a company to address overleveraged balance sheets. David has supported management teams and lenders to develop counterfactual analysis as part of these processes whether that is a UK Restructuring Plan or one of the European equivalents such as the Dutch WHoA or the German StaRUG. David is also able to act as an independent expert witness for the court where his experience is required to support the curt process.
In order to successfully navigate whatever challenge a corporate might be facing careful planning, the right support and creative foresight are essential ingredients together with the flexibility to deal with the myriad of issues that will come out of left field. Through PwC’s culture, multidisciplinary expertise, creativity and experience, our team is uniquely placed to take on these new challenges and play our part in supporting management and stakeholders build back a thriving business community for the long-term.
It is not what you do that makes a difference but how you do it, and at PwC, our restructuring team believes in treating all people with respect and dignity, whilst delivering meaningful engagement across the widest range of parties.
At a glance
Areas of focus
- Insolvency
- Administration
- Liquidation
- Contingency Planning
- Director Duties
- Cross Border Restructuring
- Bankruptcy
- Financial Services
- Stakeholder Negotiation
- Restructuring Plans
- WHoA
- Schemes of Arrangement
- Moratorium
- Administrative Receivership
- Fixed Charge Receivership
- Pensions
Experience
- Carillion plc and its UK and overseas subsidiaries, Lead Special Manager supporting the Official Receiver to wind down the affairs of this former FTSE100 global construction and facilities management companies which had more than 40,000 employees worldwide,
- Lehman Brothers, Joint Administrator across a number of the insolvency estates of this global investment bank which collapsed into insolvency in the 2008 global financial crisis. Returns to creditors have exceeded £40bn and in many instances creditors have been paid in excess of 100p in £1,
- NRs Heathcare, one of the Special Managers appointed to help the Official Receiver with the liquidation of this UK based healthcare equipment provider and the transition of the operating contracts to new providers,
- Travelex Group, Joint Administrator for this global regulated foreign currency business where a number of the key underlying business operations were sold out of insolvency to a vehicle controlled by the former lenders,
- Accell, supported this Netherlands based bicycle manufacturer and retailer develop its counterfactual analysis as part of the successful UK Scheme of Arrangement that was used to restructure its €600m debt. Other options being considered by the company included the use of a UK Restructuring Plan alongside a Dutch WHoA,
- Adler Group, supported this German based property group develop its counterfactual analysis as part of the negotiations to achieve a successful second restructuring of its €6bn debt stack,
- Consort Healthcare, supported the company with is proposal to use a UK Restructuring Plan to compromise elements of its PFI contract,
- Phones 4U Group, Joint Administrator for this UK Group which operated one of the UKs largest independent mobile phone retailers with over 600 outlets,
- OW Bunker Group, Joint Fixed Charge Receiver overseeing the insolvency of this global bunkering conglomerate which was headquartered in Denmark,
- MG Rover Group, Joint Administrator of one of the largest insolvencies of a UK automotive manufacturer, and
- UK Coal, Joint Administrator of this UK based group that operated a series of underground and surface coal mines - this was the shortest administration in UK corporate history before it went into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation.
