Dramatic Restructuring of Ihr Platz Provides Remarkable Test Case of New German Insolvency Law

Abstract

When management gaffes, mounting losses and plunging sales brought German drugstore chain Ihr Platz to the brink of collapse, everyone feared the worst. For as long as insolvency has been part of the country's financial lexicon, filing for bankruptcy meant almost certain liquidation. Yet less than a year after Alvarez & Marsal was tapped to execute a U.S.-style restructuring under a little-used 1999 German law, Ihr Platz defied the odds. The 125-year-old company's remarkable rebound astonished skeptics, and “provided a test case that could well spur many more such workouts and galvanize industrial overhauls in Germany.” This turnaround earned Alvarez & Marsal special recognition by the TMA in the 2006 International Turnaround of the Year Awards.