Ateliers Jean Nouvel: tailored management tools enabling successful achievement of the recovery plan
SO-MG Partners provided support through to the adoption of an appropriate recovery plan and improved the client’s working capital requirement via the adoption of tailored management and controllership tools.
France’s leading firm of architects, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, was obliged to adapt to the global slowdown in the real estate market between 2009 and 2012 and to implement a two-stage turnaround plan:
1 – Financial restructuring and adjustment of the company’s debt maturities to reflect the firm’s new repayment capacities. The restructuring began by a conciliation procedure and was followed by the adoption of a recovery plan which commenced implementation in 2017;
2 – Reinforcement of the company’s financial management and deployment of appropriate tools for the management of an activity rendered complex by the volume of the company’s projects and associated resources.
The work performed by SO-MG Partners:
- Provision of support for the company during the recovery procedure, involving the communication to the commercial court of reports presenting monthly operating and cash forecasts during the period of observation as well as the 6-year business plan serving as the basis for the company’s recovery plan;
- Implementation of reporting procedures and controllership tools providing a critical view of the company and its profitability both overall and at the level of individual projects, geographical zones etc., as well as enabling monthly monitoring of working capital and cash with a view to anticipating the inevitable periodic treasury shortfalls in the short and long term so as to provide security for the payments provided for under the plan.
The results achieved:
- Definition of a recovery plan adapted to the client’s repayment capacity;
- Improvement of profitability and of the company’s cash position thanks to a management tool helping focus the company’s strategy on its high margin contracts and modify its terms of sale in order to improve its working capital requirement;
- Close management control of fixed and variable cost overruns;
- Improvement of the company’s margin for negotiation with its clients and rigorous control over customer credit in order to reduce the working capital requirement.