Distressed M&A encompasses acquisitions or sales of businesses in financial distress — formal insolvency proceedings, severe liquidity stress, critical over-indebtedness or imminent liquidation risk. These transactions are characterised by compressed timelines, incomplete information, prices significantly discounted from intrinsic value and high legal complexity. In France, they often occur within judicial rescue or liquidation frameworks; in Switzerland, within the concordat moratorium framework. Typical buyers are turnaround funds, opportunistic competitors or industrial acquirers with rapid integration capabilities.

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Example: Hectelion advises a turnaround fund acquiring a French aeronautics subcontractor in judicial recovery, valued at CHF 4.5 million for its assets (versus an estimated intrinsic value of CHF 9.0 million). The due diligence is completed in 10 working days, the disposal plan submitted to the commercial court preserves 180 jobs and proposes a 3-year continuation plan — selected by the court over a competing liquidation scenario.

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Hectelion intervenes in Distressed M&A situations with experienced teams capable of rapid due diligence and defensible valuations in constrained, court-supervised processes.