Member Spotlight: Stout Risius Ross, Inc.
An interview with:
Neil Steinkamp, CCIFP, AVA
Director
Dispute Advisory & Forensic Services
Stout Risius Ross, Inc
Explain Stout Risius Ross’ services to the automotive industry:
Stout Risius Ross (SRR) is a financial advisory firm specializing in Investment Banking, Valuation & Financial Opinions, and Dispute Advisory & Forensic Services. SRR’s automotive clients range from OEMs to the network of tiered suppliers and material vendors throughout the automotive supply chain. For more information, visit www.srr.com.
How in particular does SRR support companies in the automotive industry?
SRRs breadth and depth of industry knowledge enables our team of professionals to offer a broad array of financial consulting services to clients in the automotive industry. Our Investment Banking Group has a long history of working with suppliers to evaluate strategic alternatives and capital structure, including raising capital (senior debt, subordinated debt, equity), in addition to the outright sale / merger of a supplier. In some instances, this involves distressed mergers & acquisitions associated with Chapter 11 or §363 Bankruptcy Sales.
Our Dispute Advisory & Forensic Services Group is regularly engaged to serve as financial experts in matters involving fraudulent conveyance recovery actions, preference analyses, forensic investigations, e-discovery, asset tracing, and financial investigations. We also look at retrospective solvency opinions, substantive consolidation issues, and various post-transaction disputes.
In addition, our team of Valuation & Financial Opinions professionals are often involved in collateral appraisals (both real estate and machinery & equipment), intellectual property valuations, determinations of reorganization value, evaluation of complex financial instruments, and fresh start accounting. These are particularly relevant given the current economic volatility in the automotive industry.
What trends do you see in the next couple of years?
We’re seeing more product warranty and recall disputes (click here for more from a recent SRR Journal article). We’re also seeing gradual improvement in credit availability and stronger lending behavior by banks (click here for more from a recent SRR Journal article) although for most middle market companies banks are very cautious about lending in amounts in excess of collateral value. Further, we are seeing greater scrutiny by suppliers’ purchasing departments and general counsel with respect to supply contracts. With this increase, we expect ongoing internal investigations to identify unscrupulous behavior and transactions within the organization and with suppliers. As the capabilities of technology and data theft have increased in recent years, this is often being accompanied with forensic investigation and computer forensics.
