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We all know that companies in distress tend to have a harder time meeting their financial obligations, which translates to a higher probability that they will default. A company in this position has pretty straightforward options: either raise enough cash through asset sales, operating improvements, and new financing, or reduce or postpone interest and principal payments on the debt by negotiating with creditors.  

For restructuring or turnaround experts, identifying distressed companies is the first hurdle to deal sourcing and business development. Using the AdvantageData workstation, we’ve compiled a list of distressed loans that you might want to be aware of.

Restructuring is often driven by market rhythms, or quantifiable circumstances like the decline of shopping at brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online shopping. An easy example of the latter is the rise in eCommerce at online stores like Amazon, resulting in the bankruptcy and liquidation of Toys R Us. Another, less common circumstance can be natural (or unnatural) disasters.

It has been reported that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), a California based utility, has brought in law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP to explore restructuring options after California officials found the company responsible for the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history in the fall of 2017. One option the firm is said to be exploring is breaking up PG&E and filing bankruptcy for one of the units. For companies struggling financially, sacrificing one area of a business to protect the rest from liabilities is a popular strategy. [source]

What we already know...

We know that investment professionals benefit from reliable, holistic, aggregated data. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that making data easy to find and understand translates to efficient analysts and more profitable firms.

Over the past two weeks, we have shown you a few ways you can leverage business development company filing data with BDC Advantage. BDC Advantage eliminates the tedious, time-consuming process of manually compiling and standardizing BDC quarterly filings, allowing users to easily analyze data relevant to their firm.

We've shown you how to:

Leveraging BDC data has never been easier. Using BDC Advantage by AdvantageData, you can filter aggregated business development company portfolio data by industry, investment type, filing notes and more. 

Generate refined custom data elements that can be downloaded in an easy-to-use excel spreadsheet. We filtered our list by filing notes (selecting the "non-accrual: yes" option) to find out which portfolios were in the most trouble.

BDC filings are around the corner. See our Q2 2018 BDC earnings calendar below. Outsourcing your data collection efforts to AdvantageData provides your team with access to standardized #BDC data within 8 hours of filings. BCD Advantage empowers your team with the aggregated data they need. Leveraging filing information has never been easier.

BDC Advantage was developed in partnership with a group of BDCs seeking to outsource BDC data aggregation, direct lending analytics and loan pricing across the thousands of US middle market companies currently held as portfolio companies. AdvantageData provides unmatched insight into the BDC space by leveraging tools perfected through over 20 years of serving the sell-side but using data specific to the BDC and private credit space. See why BDCs, direct lenders, BDC analysts and investors all use AdvantageData.