Accelerated Mergers & Acquisition (AMA) saved leading milkshake bar chain

The business is a market-leading milkshake bar with, at the time, 55 owned and franchised stores across the UK and a small overseas presence. From establishment in 1999, the company grew to a £4.6m turnover business. Due to the downturn in the economy, the decline in the retail market and lack of available equity investment, the business had to be restructured via an immediate sale out of Administration to exit loss-making outlets.

Work undertaken

Our team of restructuring specialists advised the company and the bank pre-appointment, and involved our Corporate Finance team in exploring accelerated mergers and acquisition (AMA) options. The next stage was to negotiate with interested parties for a sale through Administration and assist the directors with pre-Administration trading and control of the overdraft.

This was a complex transaction with numerous challenges which led to a successful sale that subsequently saved the outlets. Predictable challenges included the need to resolve a sale with competing purchasers against an extremely pressing timescale before the Notice of Intention to Appoint lapsed.

We managed to preserve the goodwill of the trading business and manage the landlords while managing the directors’ own objectives vis-à-vis the IPR being owned outside of the bank’s security against their personal guarantee position which complicated the eventual sale.