Corporate Turnaround
- Financial Review and Cash Flow Management: Comprehensive diagnostic reviews of financial position, working capital, and liquidity. We help the company’s management to develop and implement robust cash flow forecasting, cost reduction programs and working capital optimization strategies to stabilize operations and improve immediate financial health.
- Management Support: Interim management support, including placement of experienced professionals in key roles. We provide hands-on operational guidance, performance improvement initiatives, and strategic advisory to strengthen leadership and execution capabilities.
- Restructuring: Design and implementation of operational, financial, and capital restructurings. This includes debt refinancing, balance sheet reorganizations, asset disposals, and negotiations with stakeholders. We facilitate informal workouts, scheme of arrangement under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) sections 668-677, and other consensual solutions to avoid formal insolvency where possible.
- Receivership: Appointment and acting as receiver or receiver and manager (under powers in security documents or pursuant to Cap. 32). We take control of charged assets, realize value efficiently, manage ongoing business operations where appropriate, and report to appointors and other stakeholders.
- Professional Directorship: Provision of independent professional directors to boards of companies in transition. This enhances governance, ensures compliance, and provides objective oversight during turnaround or restructuring processes.
Forensic Accounting
- Investigations into fraud, misappropriation, financial irregularities, director or professional party misconduct.
- Asset tracing and recovery, including analysis of pre-insolvency transactions that may be vulnerable to challenge (e.g., unfair preferences or transactions at an undervalue under Cap. 32).
- Due diligence and financial analysis in shareholder disputes, commercial litigation, and regulatory investigations.
- Quantification of economic damages, business valuations, and loss of profits assessments.
- Expert witness reports and testimony for litigation, arbitration, or court proceedings.
Monitoring Accountant
Insolvency Experts – Corporate and Personal Insolvency
- Advising on and managing creditors’ voluntary winding-up, members’ voluntary winding-up, and compulsory winding-up proceedings under Cap. 32.
- Acting as provisional liquidators to preserve assets and, where appropriate, facilitate restructuring.
- Conduct of liquidations, including asset realization, creditor claims adjudication, investigations into company affairs, and distribution of proceeds in accordance with statutory priorities.
- Advice on cross-border insolvency matters, recognition of foreign proceedings, and coordination with overseas office-holders.
- Acting as trustees in bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Ordinance (Cap. 6).
- Individual Voluntary Arrangements (“IVAs”) and debt restructuring solutions for individuals.
- Advice to debtors and creditors on bankruptcy petitions and alternatives.
- Stakeholder communications and creditor committee management.
- Compliance with director disqualification and reporting obligations.
- Maximization of asset recoveries through litigation, where warranted.
- Post-insolvency reviews and lessons-learned reporting.
Need Professional Support
A company should engage advisers as soon as early warning signs appear — persistent cash flow shortages, covenant breaches, creditor pressure or projected insolvency. Early engagement preserves options, reduces the risk of wrongful trading claims against directors, and increases the likelihood of a consensual workout rather than a contested winding-up.
Receivership is typically initiated by a secured creditor to realise charged assets, while winding-up is a court or creditor-driven process to liquidate the entire company and distribute proceeds. A company in receivership may continue operating, whereas a company in winding-up generally ceases operations, though provisional liquidators may preserve the business temporarily.
Yes. A scheme of arrangement sanctioned by the Hong Kong court under the Companies Ordinance binds all creditors within the relevant class, including dissenters, provided the required statutory majorities are achieved. This makes schemes a powerful tool for implementing complex debt restructurings with legal certainty across diverse creditor groups.
Hong Kong has not formally adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. Instead, Hong Kong relies on common law principles and sections 326-327 of the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32) for recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings. Foreign liquidators and receivers can seek recognition and assistance from the Hong Kong court, enabling coordinated administration of assets and proceedings across jurisdictions.
When a company is or may become insolvent, directors' duties shift from protecting shareholder interests to considering creditor interests. Directors must minimise loss to creditors, avoid wrongful trading, and seek professional advice promptly. CityLinkers advises directors on compliance with these duties throughout restructuring and insolvency proceedings.
A debt-to-equity swap converts outstanding creditor claims into equity in the restructuring company, reducing leverage and improving solvency. It is used when debt levels are unsustainable, existing shareholders are willing to accept dilution, and creditors see long-term upside in an equity stake rather than an immediate discounted recovery through liquidation.
Timelines vary widely. Informal workouts may conclude within three to six months, while court-sanctioned schemes of arrangement and cross-border restructurings can take twelve to twenty-four months. Factors include creditor complexity, asset realisation requirements, regulatory approvals, and the need for coordinated proceedings across multiple jurisdictions.
