Restructuring
•Restructuring is a strategy through which a firm changes its set of businesses or its financial structure.
•The failure of an acquisition strategy is often followed by a restructuring strategy.
•In other instances, firms use a restructuring strategy because of changes in their external and internal environments.
Restructuring
Downsizing
•Downsizing is a reduction in the number of a firm’s employees and, sometimes, in the number of its operating units, but it may or may not change the composition of businesses in the company’s portfolio.
Restructuring
Downscoping
•Downscoping refers to divestiture, spin-off, or some other means of eliminating businesses that are unrelated to a firm’s core businesses.
•Commonly, downscoping is described as a set of actions that causes a firm to strategically refocus on its core businesses.
Restructuring
Leveraged Buyout
•A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a restructuring strategy whereby a party buys all of a firm’s assets in order to take the firm private.
•Once the transaction is completed, the company’s stock is no longer traded publicly.
•Usually, significant amounts of debt are incurred to finance a buyout.
Restructuring
Leveraged Buyout (cont.)
•To support debt payments and to downscope the company to concentrate on the firm’s core businesses, the new owners may immediately sell a number of assets.
•Buyouts can represent a form of firm rebirth to facilitate entrepreneurial efforts and stimulate strategic growth.
Restructuring Outcomes
•In general, research evidence and corporate experience suggest that downsizing may be of more tactical (or short-term) value than strategic (or long-term) value.
•Downscoping generally leads to more positive outcomes in both the short- and the long-term than does downsizing or engaging in a leveraged buyout.
Restructuring Outcomes
•Downscoping’s desirable long-term outcome of higher performance is a product of reduced debt costs and the emphasis on strategic controls derived from concentrating on the firm’s core businesses.
•In so doing, the refocused firm should be able to increase its ability to compete.
Restructuring Outcomes
Assignment
•In groups, answer the review questions in the main text, page 204.
•Answer in 3-4 page of A4.
•Pass the answer sheet to the lecturer at the beginning of the next class.