Al Kirchhein is a seasoned restructuring professional with 25 years of experience leading and working on difficult and high profile assignments. Al specializes in financial restructuring, crisis management, and coordinating dispositions of underperforming or highly leveraged companies.
Al’s extensive turnaround experience also includes strategic planning, cash-flow forecasting, cash management, the preparation of business plans and ongoing monitoring of liquidations. Mr. Kirchhein has been the primary financial advisor to parties of interest in numerous complex, multinational matters in industries including retail, banking, health care, distribution and manufacturing. He has also served as Trustee in numerous Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases. Al’s forte is crafting creative and effective plans and executing in a manner that maximizes the outcomes to critical stakeholders. A New Jersey native and Rutgers College graduate, Al started his career in the area of commercial real estate development and management working for a Houston based developer; Al was involved with several high-rise office projects in New York City.
His involvement in commercial real estate development included construction management, leasing, project management tenant builds out and property management. Prior to founding Scouler Kirchhein, Al was involved with several high profile cases as a Senior Managing Director at GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group. Prior to GlassRatner, Al had his own firm AK Inc., and before that Al was a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and its predecessor firm Policano & Manzo where he began his restructuring career in 1996. Recently Al represented the board of directors of a $1.4 billion forestry company in Canada. Al’s efforts improved operational performance, streamlined internal business processes and increased availability by $21 million on the company’s revolving credit line. Al also speaks at numerous forums around the country on restructuring and asset disposition including, The Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Institute. Al is able to draw from his experience as a college football official. With 15 years of NCAA football games under his belt, Al knows how to make tough calls, stay calm under pressure and the fine art of negotiating tense situations, all traits that have made him a go to guy in the industry.
Selected career highlights:
- Represented the debtor early on in most of the larger music retail cases including Camelot Music and WherehouseEntertainment. Moved on to represent the trade vendors (the major record labels and movie studios) in the more recent cases, Musicland and Tower Records. In all these matters the secured lenders received a full recovery while also providing a substantial distribution to the secured trade vendors as well as unsecured creditors.
- Represented the secured lender in the MoslerSafe Company. After taking the reins when the company’s advisors abandoned the project, Al achieved a recovery for his client $30 million greater than they had projected.
- Represented lenders in health care matters including Primary Health Systems, Charter Behavioral and Hawaii Medical Center.
- Represented the bank group in supermarket chains Grand Union and Bruno’s. Also represented the debtors in supermarkets Andronicosand Brown & Cole.
- Represented the Unsecured Creditors Committee in specialty retailers Crabtree & Evelyn and Z Gallerie.
- Retained by The Old CarcoLiquidation Trust to assist with the decommissioning of a number of Chrysler plants with tasks including sale and removal of equipment, building demolition and land repurposing.
- Served as trustee in Valley Media, Charysand WC Woods.
- Represented the owner/developer in a number of New York City high rise construction projects including 885 3rd Avenue, 31 West 52nd Street, 450 Lexington and 660 Madison. Duties included project management, contract administration and leasing.
- Represented the lenders in the successful refinancing of Recycling Industries Inc., a roll up of scrap metal recyclers.
- Represented the lenders in the successful refinancing of US Aggregate, a concrete manufacturer based in the South.
- Represented Investcorpin the successful sale of one of it’s portfolio companies which specialized in logistics.
- Represented the Trustee in The OldcarcoLiquidation Trust, a trust formed out of the Chrysler Bankruptcy. Duties included the decommissioning of plants with all requisite abatement processes and orchestrating the sale of heavy equipment and real estate.
- Represented the bank group in supermarket chains Grand Union and Bruno’s.
- Represented lenders in Paragon Steak, a West Coast based, multi-format chain of casual to higher end steakhouses with approximately 50 locations and provided a successful outcome.
- Financial Advisor to Amer-King, a operator of over 350 Burger King locations.
- Represented the debtors in a number of large regional home & garden chains who were victims of the incursion of Home Depot and Lowe’s. These included Ernst Home Centers, Hechingers, Builder’s Square and Home Quarters. These matters included the development of complex wind down strategies that included comprehensive store closure processes as well as the downsizing and ultimate shut down of all corporate operations. All were successful in fully paying down the senior secured lenders while providing a significant return to trade vendors