Reorg's 2023 Americas Advisory League Tables Data Reveal a 70% Increase in Engagements Amid Surge in Bankruptcy Activity

NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Reorg, a global provider of credit data, analysis and intelligence, has released its 2023 Americas Advisory league tables data showing corporate restructuring activity grew significantly from 2022 to 2023, with the filing frequency of companies seeking chapter 11 protection rising approximately 70% for cases with more than $10 million in liabilities and 130% for cases with more than $100 million in liabilities. Advisor engagements also increased by 70%, from roughly 1850 engagements reported in 2022 to just over 3,200 in 2023.

Financial Advisors

Reorg's Credit Cloud includes approximately 600 financial advisor engagements announced in 2023, about half of which were secured by the top 20 financial advisory firms, led by FTI with 57, Alvarez & Marsal with 46 and Province with 32. Restricting the data to only debtor-side engagements, Alvarez & Marsal leads the group with 36, followed by FTI with 26 and AlixPartners with 20.

FTI tops the fee table for financial advisors, with $114.3 million of fees approved in 2023 across 23 cases, on its own accounting for 32% of the top 20's aggregate FA fee total of $360.2 million. Following FTI is Alvarez & Marsal, which secured approval for $77.1 million in fees spanning 17 cases and AlixPartners with $57.5 million from its work with 11 cases.

Legal Advisors

Reorg identifies more than 2,100 legal advisor engagements reported in 2023, with approximately 650 engagements (30% of the total) secured by the period's top 20 law firms. Kirkland & Ellis is at the top of the legal advisor tables with 80 engagements, followed by Latham with 52, and Gibson Dunn with 48. Looking at debtor-side engagements only, Kirkland leads with 58, followed by Latham with 26 and Young Conaway with 24.

In addition to leading in number of legal engagements, Kirkland also led in total fees for law firms, securing on a final basis approval for $152.4 million for its work on 16 cases, followed by Weil with $116 million spanning eight cases and White & Case with $100.4 million across five cases.

Investment Bankers

Of roughly 450 investment banker engagements in 2023 on Credit Cloud, the top 20 firms made up nearly 90% of the total, including Houlihan Lokey at the top with 54 engagements, Evercore with 38 and PJT with 32. Restricting the results to debtor-side engagements only, Jefferies leads the group with 23 retentions, followed by Houlihan Lokey with 22 and PJT and Evercore each with 20.  

PJT took a nearly 30% share of total fees approved for investment bankers in 2023 with $114.8 million across its work with eight cases, followed by Evercore with $66.2 million for five cases and Moelis with $38.7 million across six cases.

Access the full report here.

About Reorg

Founded in 2013, Reorg combines powerful technology along with financial and legal analysis and reporting to provide a granular and holistic view of hard-to-find credit information. Reorg's analytics, sourced from a variety of public and proprietary data sources, and breaking news updates on sub-investment grade credit are a mission-critical solution that drives significant efficiencies for customers and democratizes data access to complex and opaque information. Reorg has experienced rapid growth over the last decade and today serves more than 30,000 professionals across the world's leading hedge funds, asset managers, investment banks, law firms, professional services and advisors. To learn more, visit Reorg.com.

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