Services
Business Rescue, Restructuring & Insolvency Advice
Our dedicated team of licensed Insolvency Practitioners and restructuring experts is here to provide a clear path forward.
Facing financial uncertainty is one of the most difficult challenges for any business owner. Knowing what steps to take, especially with competing priorities from staff, suppliers, and lenders, can be overwhelming. Our dedicated team of licensed Insolvency Practitioners and restructuring experts is here to provide a clear path forward.
Using practical, commercial, and technical expertise, our primary goal is always to rescue the business where possible. We work quickly to understand your challenges, restore stability, and help you regain control. Whether you need to improve cashflow, restructure your operations, or explore a formal insolvency option, we provide straightforward advice designed to achieve the best possible outcome for you and your business.
Your options when facing financial distress
Taking appropriate action at the first sign of trouble can make a significant difference. Our first step is always to explore every available option for recovery and restructuring.
Business Rescue & Performance Improvement:
Our team will work with you to overcome immediate challenges and improve long-term viability. We provide hands-on support to:
- Manage critical cashflow: We help you prioritise actions, understand your working capital requirements, and manage expectations with pressing creditors like HMRC, lenders, and key suppliers to create breathing space.
- Improve performance & viability: An independent review can identify key issues and areas for improvement. We work with you to review processes, enhance operational performance, and implement a robust strategy for recovery.
- Restructure your business & finances: By understanding your business and your objectives, we provide clear, actionable recommendations. This can include informal arrangements with creditors, refinancing, or wider operational restructuring to align the business for future success.
Contact us
Get in touch with our Restructuring & Insolvency team
Contact the teamRescue & restructuring procedures
Sometimes, a business needs the legal protection of a formal process to allow a rescue to be implemented. We can guide you through options.
Administration
This provides a moratorium (a 'safe harbour' from creditor action) to allow time to rescue the company, often through a sale of the business as a going concern.
Company voluntary arrangement (CVA)
A formal agreement with your creditors to repay a percentage of your debts whilst allowing the company to continue trading under the directors' control.
Restructuring plan
A flexible but court-driven process that enables a company to propose a compromise with creditors to facilitate a rescue.
Closing a Business: Orderly & Formal Solutions
If rescuing the company or its business is not viable, or the company has come to the end of its purpose, we will help you close the company in the most appropriate and orderly way, ensuring you meet all your legal duties as a director.
Solvent liquidation
If your business is solvent but you are looking to retire or cease trading, a Members’ Voluntary Liquidation (MVL) is a highly tax-efficient way to close the company and extract the value for shareholders.
Corporate Simplification
If there is a corporate structure which includes dormant subsidiaries we can work with you to streamline the corporate structure thus reducing compliance costs and management time associated with maintaining these companies. We will identify those companies which can be dealt with by way of a simple strike off application and those which should be closed by way of a liquidation process. We will involve our tax, company secretarial and financial reporting teams as appropriate.
Insolvent liquidation
When a company cannot be saved, a Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) which is a director-led process, is the most appropriate way to close the company, ensuring that all assets are realised, employees are able to make claims for any outstanding pay and other entitlements, and all creditors are formally dealt with.
Working with creditors & lenders
Our expertise also extends to supporting creditors and lenders in recovering debt and maximising realisations from distressed situations.
Compulsory liquidations
Where requested by creditors we can act as Liquidator where a company has been wound up the court. We will seek to realise assets for the benefit of all creditors and investigate pre insolvency transactions.
Fixed charge & LPA receiverships
Our team can be appointed as receivers over specific assets, providing a useful tool for secured lenders to recover their funds.
Contentious insolvency
We are experienced in acting in contentious insolvencies and investigating issues such as misfeasance, wrongful trading, preferences and transactions at an undervalue, with a view to enhancing realisations for creditors.
Bankruptcy
Where requested by creditors we can act as Trustee in Bankruptcy to realise and identify assets for the benefit of creditors.
Personal insolvency advice
Financial distress is not limited to companies. Whether you are an individual facing personal debt challenges or a creditor owed money by an individual, our experienced team provides clear advice on options such as Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and Bankruptcy.
Supporting you and your business through difficult times
Learn moreOur Insolvency Practitioners
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Here are some of the most common concerns we help clients navigate.
Restructuring focuses on making operational and financial changes to a viable business to overcome challenges and improve performance. Depending on the level of financial distress a company faces, it may be possible to restructure a business without the need for a formal insolvency process. However in some circumstances a formal insolvency process such as an administration or CVA is used to rescue and restructure the business. The earlier advice is taken by directors, the more likely it is that a restructure outside of a formal insolvency process will be possible as there will be time for more options to be explored.
There are two main tests: the cashflow test (are you unable to pay your debts as they fall due?) and the balance sheet test (do your liabilities exceed your assets?). If the answer to either is yes, you should seek professional advice immediately as there may be more options to be explored and it is important that you understand your duties as a director.
Yes. This is a primary focus of our restructuring work. We can help you with forecasting, negotiating with creditors, and exploring new funding options to create immediate breathing space and a long-term solution.
It is never too early to take advice even if only as a Plan B or Plan C. The earlier advice is taken, the more potential available options.
We can engage with creditors on your behalf to negotiate informal payment plans. In more serious cases, formal procedures like Administration or a CVA provide legal protection from creditor action.
Yes, we regularly work with companies to assist them in negotiations with HMRC.
In situations of financial distress the duties of a company’s directors switch from being a fiduciary duty to the company, to a duty to protect the interests of the company’s creditors. There is risk of personal liability and disqualification for directors if they do not act appropriately, so it is vital that professional advice is taken early. Read more.
Insolvency practitioners are experienced in working with company directors and stakeholders to rescue and restructure businesses. In addition they take formal insolvency appointments in a personal capacity to act as Liquidators, Administrators, Supervisors and Trustees. To act as an insolvency practitioner, individuals need an insolvency licence. These are issued, on an annual basis by a Recognised Professional Body (RPB). The RPB ensures that the insolvency practitioner is complying with their statutory duties and that they are reaching the high professional standards expected of them. All of Armstrong Watson’s team of insolvency practitioners are regulated by the ICAEW.
If your business is solvent (has more assets than liabilities), a Members' Voluntary Liquidation (MVL) is a very tax-efficient way to close it down and extract the profits. We can advise you on the best course of action.
Employees who have valid claims will be paid by the Redundancy Payments Service (up to statutory limits). Where a company enters into a formal insolvency process then its employees may have various claims including for arrears of pay, holiday pay, redundancy and pay in lieu of notice. Our experienced team will guide you and your employees through the process of making these claims.
Get in touch
Get in touch to speak to one of our specialist advisers and explore how we can help you.
Find your local office
Visit your local office. To find your nearest office just enter your town or city below.
What our clients say
We're committed to delivering the best client experience. Hear from those who have worked with us and discover how we've helped them achieve their goals.
It is now the appropriate time to express my sincere thanks on behalf of myself, Sarah and the directors for the excellence of the service, advice and guidance that Armstrong Watson have patiently and professionally provided throughout a prolonged and difficult period. The company has achieved the outcome it set out to do with your invaluable help.
From the moment when the decision was made to seek insolvency advice and appoint Armstrong Watson yourself and Ann have calmly and methodically helped us understand what the realistic options were and how to set about progressing them. This was a complex transaction for a number of reasons and needed patience and understanding from everyone involved but it also needed the constructive challenge that you provided to ensure that realistic decisions were made as we encountered a series of obstacles and delays because of the complexities we encountered and had to deal with.
In the pre-appointment period the role of the insolvency advisor changes as the process goes through different phases along the journey into administration. It is imperative that your advisors explain this very clearly, the need for this and provide unambiguous guidance on what is required from yourself and colleagues to hit a tight timetable with little room for error. Although it was a very intense and demanding period I cannot underestimate the importance of your key advisers striking the right balance of calm, clarity, and urgency – you and Ann provided this throughout the entire process.
My sincere thanks and regards.
Clive Memmott
Chief Executive, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
