Alvarez & Marsal

Challenge: National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE), a secured lender to healthcare providers and a purchaser of patient accounts receivable, had accumulated debt of more than $3 billion across various portfolios.

Approach: Upon detection of fraud, NCFE's Board retained Alvarez & Marsal to serve as crisis managers. A&M quickly ceased NCFE's new business activities and sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to efficiently wind down operations. A&M acted as manager of a portfolio of secured claims and deficiency claims against healthcare providers, including hospitals, specialty medical practices, home health agencies and ancillary businesses. This role comprised of 60 simultaneous healthcare debt workouts (30 of which were in bankruptcy), and included a series of complex inter-creditor and payor negotiations. A&M managed NCFE's bankruptcy process, including communications with four creditor bodies, corporate wind-up and plan negotiations. A&M also interacted and cooperated with various law enforcement and securities agencies, while remaining focused on efficiently managing the commercial elements of the case.

Results Achieved: A&M developed and executed a very favorable realization of NCFE's portfolio, distributing the proceeds and an interest in future litigation to creditors pursuant to a plan of liquidation.