Financial distress affects far more than numbers on a balance sheet. For companies, directors, creditors and individuals, it touches reputation, relationships, certainty and the ability to make rational decisions under pressure. Insolvency law is technical and time-sensitive, but it also offers a language of routes, options and protections, if interpreted and deployed correctly.

At Fortis Rose, we represent both sides of insolvency matters. This dual insight allows us to understand the motivations, pressures and strategies facing creditors and debtors alike. Whether enforcing a debt or defending against one, we help clients regain clarity, stabilise their position and move forward with confidence.

Understanding the Landscape Before Making a Move

When financial pressure arises, the instinct is often to act quickly. Yet the real advantage lies in acting correctly. Insolvency law offers multiple pathways, some formal, some strategic, some commercially creative, and each one carries different consequences.

Our role is to help clients understand where they stand, what tools are available, and how timing and evidence will shape the outcome. The right early step is often worth more than months of later effort.

Acting for Creditors: Strategic Leverage & Effective Recovery

Unpaid debts require a balance between firmness and commercial judgment.
Act too slowly and recovery becomes difficult; act too aggressively and you may lose strategic options.

We assist creditors with every part of the enforcement journey: from the first demand to complex recovery processes. Our approach focuses on proportionate, structured action, applying the right level of pressure, backed by a clear understanding of the debtor’s circumstances and assets.

We support creditors with pre-action strategy, statutory demands, winding-up and bankruptcy petitions, challenges to suspicious transactions, negotiation structures, and work involving insolvency practitioners.

The aim is always the same: maximize recovery while minimising unnecessary cost and risk.

Acting for Companies & Individuals Facing Insolvency Pressure

For directors and individuals, the moment financial pressure becomes visible is often the moment rational thinking becomes difficult. We help clients stabilise quickly.

We provide clear, actionable advice on responding to demands, resisting petitions, negotiating with creditors, managing risk, considering restructuring or repayment options, and understanding the implications of liquidation or bankruptcy.

Many people assume they have fewer options than they actually do, early advice often transforms a situation that looked unmanageable into something structured and solvable.

Contentious Insolvency: Where Financial Pressure Meets Dispute

Not all insolvency matters are simply financial. Many contain elements of dispute, allegation or potential liability.

We represent clients, on both sides, in cases involving disputed debts, wrongful and fraudulent trading, misfeasance, breach of duty, antecedent transaction claims, security disputes and challenges to office-holder decisions.

Our litigation background means we approach contentious insolvency with a combination of precision, evidence analysis and strategic advocacy.

Business Recovery, Turnaround & Strategic Solutions

Creative commercial pathways for businesses seeking stability, reinvention or value preservation.

Not every distressed business needs to fail.

Not every creditor wants to destroy goodwill.

Not every director is left without a viable next step.

Financial pressure can create opportunity: for restructuring, consolidation, sale, reinvestment, partnership or reorganisation. At Fortis Rose, we look beyond formal processes and help clients explore strategic alternatives before insolvency becomes unavoidable.

This often includes:

1. Selling, merging or transforming the business: A distressed business can still hold value. A strategic sale, partial disposal, carve-out or merger can preserve jobs, reputation and capital.

2. Joint ventures, alliances or shared-risk arrangements: Two unstable businesses can create a stable one. Collaboration can reduce overheads and unlock new revenue.

3. Asset repositioning, trade-offs or part-exchanges: Assets that burden one business may be an opportunity for another. We explore transfers that reduce strain and enable survival.

4. New investment, refinancing or strategic borrowing: Investors and turnaround specialists often seek opportunities in restructuring scenarios. With the right preparation, distressed businesses can attract capital.

5. Carve-outs and division restructuring: Sometimes a business can be saved by separating viable units from loss-making ones.

6. Coordinated professional input: We work with a trusted network of:

• corporate finance advisers

• turnaround professionals

• insolvency practitioners (focused on rescue, not collapse)

• specialist lenders

• forensic accountants

• strategic investors

This collaborative approach ensures that commercial strategy comes first, supported by legal structure.

We do not rush to formal insolvency. We start with the question: “What is the best commercial outcome?” because we know that only after the strategy is clear can we truly apply procedural law to support it.

Negotiated Solutions: Settlement, Restructuring & Recovery

Many cases resolve long before formal insolvency is necessary. We help clients frame realistic settlement proposals, negotiate repayment plans, restructure liabilities, and secure agreements that protect long-term value.

Our aim is always to create workable, enforceable and future-proof outcomes, not short-term fixes.

Court Representation & Formal Insolvency Proceedings

Where proceedings are necessary, we act with accuracy and discipline. We represent clients in winding-up and bankruptcy hearings, applications to restrain petitions, procedural directions, litigation arising from insolvency, and recovery actions.

Whether issuing or defending, we approach every case with thorough preparation and calm advocacy.

Directors, Personal Exposure & Risk

When a company faces insolvency, directors face heightened scrutiny. We guide directors through their duties, risks and potential liabilities, including issues involving:

• wrongful or fraudulent trading

• preferences and undervalued transactions

• personal guarantees

• enquiries from liquidators or trustees

• regulatory consequences

Our role is to help directors manage their exposure with clarity and foresight.

The Fortis Rose Approach

Clients rely on us because insolvency demands:

Judgment: knowing the difference between opportunity and risk.

Timing: acting neither too soon nor too late.

Clarity: understanding the full landscape before taking a step.

Steadiness: maintaining composure when the pressure is greatest.

Commercial sense: because insolvency is not just legal; it is fundamentally commercial.

Our clients include sophisticated creditors, established businesses, directors and individuals who need guidance that is both technical and human.

Illustrative Example

We were instructed by a creditor concerned that a debtor company was deliberately shifting assets ahead of liquidation. By acting quickly, securing forensic analysis of transactions and engaging a commercially minded insolvency practitioner, we obtained urgent freezing measures and leveraged a settlement that protected our client’s position in full. The business avoided prolonged litigation; the creditor avoided unnecessary loss.

If Financial Pressure Is Building, Early Advice Is Everything

Insolvency is not a single event, it is a trajectory. The earlier we speak to you, the more options exist. Whether you are protecting your interests as a creditor, stabilising your business under strain, safeguarding your personal exposure as a director, or exploring commercial recovery options, we can help.

Contact us in confidence.