The interim manager was commissioned by a medium-sized, listed automotive supplier. The group of companies had got into financial difficulties. The product portfolio was not competitive and new products were not ready for the market. As interim CFO, the interim manager took on the task of reorganizing the company's finances. In his second role as CRO, he ensured the successful implementation of the restructuring measures and modernized the process and system landscape in particular. He also made a significant contribution to placing a new product (nitrogen oxide generator) on the market. The interim manager took on the mandate as a freelancer, later switching to a permanent position as CFO on an interim basis.
The company, consisting of several subsidiaries in Germany and abroad, developed and produced filters for exhaust gas purification as well as exhaust gas purification systems for diesel engines of all kinds and traded in products for retrofitting exhaust gas purification systems for cars, trucks and other diesel engines.
Finding new equity providers and negotiating restructuring with the banks
These were the main challenges for the interim CFO:
- Finding new equity providers and bringing them on board
- Negotiating the restructuring and reorganization with the banks
- Taking over and integrating a Swiss group of companies belonging to the new anchor shareholder
- Establishing debt relief for the group of companies
- Acquiring new equity on the capital market and making the business model commercially successful.
Interim CRO: Post-merger integration of the subsidiaries
In the role of interim CRO, the focus was on restructuring the German and Swiss subsidiaries. The post-merger integration required a series of complex tasks to be successfully implemented in a timely manner. The differences in mentality between the two countries and the corporate cultures posed an additional challenge. With a transparent approach and proactive communication, the interim manager succeeded in achieving a common understanding of the collaboration in the teams of both companies.
Process and system management accelerates throughput time and reduces costs
At the beginning of the mandate, the interim manager put all administrative processes in accounting, controlling, purchasing, HR, IT and contract management to the test. He then initiated several projects to modernize, unify and standardize processes and software applications.
The unified processes served as the architecture for the review of the enterprise resource planning system (ERP), enterprise content management system (ECM) and business intelligence system (BI). As part of the modernization of the software, the customizing was adapted to the new process map in the ERP and the automation of the processes was stored in the ECM software. This made it possible to achieve uniform system integration in the companies involved.
Controlling and BI create transparency for better corporate management
The interim manager developed a concept for reporting, key figures, planning and scenarios for the business intelligence tool, which met the requirements of the equity and debt capital providers on the one hand and created more transparency for better corporate management on the other. The concept was implemented as part of the introduction of the BI software (TM1 Cognos/IBM) and automated to a large extent. The transparency made the successful implementation of all measures measurable and visible. As a result, it led to growing confidence among investors.
Financing partner found for the development and introduction of a new product
Restructuring alone was not enough to turn the company around. It also needed new products. In the company's pipeline was a nitrogen oxide generator, which was presented to a Tier 1 and further developed together with it. In order to finance the market launch of the new product, the interim manager successfully raised the necessary funds at capital market events and product presentations.
Restructuring completed with a positive result in the third financial year
The regular, trusting cooperation with debt and equity capital providers and the communication on the capital market ensured confidence in the restructuring and reorganization. The demonstrably successful post-merger integration strengthened trust. The new anchor shareholder stabilized the financing during the restructuring. The investors acquired on the capital market made it possible to develop and launch the new product. The nitrogen oxide generator is now the Group's core product.
Within three financial years, the Group was able to reduce its debt. The third financial year was concluded with a positive result (EBITDA).
