The Company We Keep With Quentin Olde

As economic headwinds, rising interest rates and market volatility test even the most robust business models, corporate resilience has never been more critical. In this edition of The Company We Keep, we speak with Quentin Olde, Senior Managing Director at Ankura, about the early warning signs of distress, the art of balancing stakeholder interests and the strategies that can turn around even the most challenging situations.

Q1) What are the most common warning signs you see in companies heading toward insolvency, and how early can advisors realistically intervene to change the outcome?

A number of factors can lead companies into financial difficulty. Sometimes the cause is internal, such as poor management or decision-making, other times it is external, like economic conditions or a one-off event such as a regulatory change or tariff. Whatever causes the stress, the indicators are often the same. I look at them in three broad categories, and whilst