Distressed / Special Situations IB Is Paradise

5:45am – Wake Up Already Behind
You wake up tired, which is how you know today will go well. Fourteen overnight emails. Three time zones. Subject lines incl. URGENT, Covenant, and one unhelpfully vague pls fix before lenders see. The company missed a covenant again. You don’t react. This is literally ur job.

7:00am – Coffee + Capital Structure Autopsy
While cov. bankers are arguing about comps, you’re rebuilding a capital structure that looks like a crime scene. First lien, second lien, PIK toggles, rescue financing, equity that’s either worth zero or everything. You briefly feel smug knowing none of this will ever appear in a case study.

8:00am – Consultants Are Already Broken
RX consultants send a 47-tab, version-42, 13-week cash flow. The email says, “Flagging a liquidity cliff in Wk.9.” You respect it. You hate it. You forward it to everyone.
On the call, you gently ask why working capital flipped signs. They sigh, blame accounting, and promise a fix. They are exhausted, but competent. You trust them more than management.

9:00am – Management Says the Line
CFO says liquidity is “tight but manageable.” The cash flow says payroll might not clear. Spec Sits PE is silent on the line, which somehow feels worse than yelling. A consultant quietly messages you: Payroll is not fine. You add a footnote. That footnote will matter later.

10:30am – Deck Surgery
You update the recovery waterfall for the 5th time bc the fulcrum magically moved again. A PE associate asks if the unsecureds can “just roll.” You say, “In theory.” You both know the answer is no.

11:30am – Lawyers Take Control
Counsel joins and the temperature drops. Someone says “default.” Legal corrects them: “Potential event of default.” Suddenly every word matters. You realize the lawyers are actually running the process now. You are the translator between reality and documentation.

12:30pm – Lunch Is a Concept
You eat cold Sweetgreen / trail mix / whatever’s in your drawer while adjusting sensitivities that change recoveries by 0.3%. A coverage banker asks what you’re working on. You say, “Out-of-court restructuring with a DIP backstop.” He nods politely. He has no idea what you just said.

2:00pm – Appreciation for People Who Deal in Cash
Consultants calmly explain why EBITDA doesn’t matter, why cash does, and why your assumption is optimistic. They’re sorta maybe right. You change it. This hurts emotionally but saves the deck.

3:30pm – Distressed PE Shows Its Hand
“We’re constructive, but valuation needs to reflect reality.” Translation: equitize everything, wipe common, maybe keep management if they behave. The partner proposes a structure that makes no sense, then goes silent. Everyone pauses. You write it down anyway. This is how deals start.

5:00pm – The Fight Over $5mm
Lenders posture. Lit is threatened. No one actually wants it. You spend an hour perfecting a model outcome that won’t matter post-reorg. Somehow this is the most important number in the world.

7:00pm – Version 34
Your MD wants a sensitivity showing recovery for every class, even though everyone knows who’s dead. You do it anyway. You are a professional.

9:00pm – Term Sheet Whiplash
Lawyers send a “near-final” draft that’s more redline than English. Distressed PE sends comments that blow it up. Consultants quietly update the cash flow again. They never complain. Respect.

10:45pm – The Glaze Moment
MD scans the deck and says, “This is good work.” That’s elite praise. You feel briefly alive.

12:30am – Perspective
You’re not selling growth.
You’re not pretending forecasts are real.
You’re not debating EBITDA add-backs for a company that doesn’t matter.

You understand capital structures. You can read a credit agreement. U know who actually has power when things break.

1:45am – Paradise
It’s messy. It’s adversarial. Everyone’s tired. But it’s real; cash, control, survival.

At least it’s not coverage. Distressed / Special Situations IB Is Paradise