Morgan Joseph forms group to focus on restructurings, distressed sales and special situation financings

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 23 - Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc. announced it has added a national practice group focused on financial restructuring transactions to its corporate finance department. The group will be headed by seven professionals.

Led by James D. Decker and based in New York City and Atlanta, the group specializes in providing strategic advice to distressed companies or their creditors as well as transactional execution under constrained timelines in complex situations. The group's expertise includes both in and out-of-court restructurings, distressed sales and special situation financings.

James Decker has more than 19 years investment banking experience and has completed 150 transactions across a variety of industries and situations. Prior to joining Morgan Joseph, he worked as national co-head of Alvarez & Marsal Corporate Finance.

"The addition of this highly successful group of restructuring experts marks an important expansion of our firm's capabilities at a time when an increasing number of mid-level corporations are finding themselves in overleveraged situations or with balance sheets in need of restructuring," Morgan Joseph's co-head of investment banking Roger Briggs, Jr. said in a press release. "There are a number of complementary aspects to this new relationship, and we anticipate developing many new opportunities as we continue to grow our firm."

The group has completed more than 50 restructurings, sales and financings since 2001, representing $8 billion-plus in funded debt.

The group's recently completed assignments include the $153 million sale of Nellson Nutraceutical, Inc., advising certain holders of $300 million bonds in a potential out-of-court restructuring of Buffets Holdings, Inc., advising the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and acting as transaction broker in the $50 million sale of Trinsic Communications, Inc., the $20 million sale of Pike Nursery Holdings LLC and advising the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Reliant Energy Channelview LP.

Current and future market conditions for the group's services are expected to continue to be driven by the fallout from the aggressive financing markets of 2004 through 2007, which facilitated high leveraged buyout volume, significantly increasing purchase price multiples, with attendant declines in credit quality exacerbated by increasingly challenging economic conditions.

At the same time, there was a veritable explosion of so-called covenant lite loans, which in 2007 totaled $96.6 billion, up from $23.6 billion the year before, but then started to decline as banks and other sources tightened credit.

Morgan Joseph is a New York-based full service investment bank.

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