BDO reinforces Debt and Restructuring area

BDO has reinforced its Debt and Restructuring area in Catalonia by hiring Ferran Travé

BDO has strengthened its Debt and Restructuring area in Catalonia with the incorporation of Ferran Travé, as senior advisor in the Advisory team, for its Barcelona office.

Ferran Travé holds a degree in Business Administration and an MBA from ESADE, along with other Master’s degrees and postgraduate courses at schools such as IESE and IE Business School. For more than 27 years he has been director of Corporate Banking in Catalonia, first with Caja Madrid, then Bankia and, after the merger, at CaixaBank. He has also been a director and administrator of different companies on behalf of the aforementioned banks.

From this area, the firm’s financial advisory solutions are complemented, being very active players in advising funds, both debt and capital, in order to channel their liquidity towards companies and their business projects. BDO has participated in large debt structuring and restructuring operations in Spain and is also an advisor to SEPI and Cofides in the new recapitalization processes of companies affected by Covid.

Ferrán Travé (pictured) said: “The ICO through commercial banking has generated financing for more than 135 billion euros, of which 19% has gone to Catalonia. This measure was very useful these years ago to save companies’ liquidity, but now it’s time to recover sustainable debt levels.” And he adds: “There are companies that generate cash that, with good judgment and prudence, took on debt and will have no problem repaying it. But other companies, in sectors most affected by the pandemic, such as tourism or passenger transport, will have to structure their debt to match it with the economic recovery in their sectors and cash generation.”

Oriol Tapias, partner in charge of Financial Advisory in Barcelona, said: “We have a deep understanding of the needs and concerns of the different parties involved in a restructuring process. With Ferrán Travé we reinforce our team of experts who, together with the variety of financial instruments currently in existence, companies can provide a solution to their needs, both to seek new forms of financing and to restructure current debt.”

And he concludes: “We stand out for the importance we give to the segment of medium-sized Spanish companies for usually having a highly banked debt structure and with fewer own resources than their peers in Europe. It is in this segment where we can help medium-sized companies to optimise their financial structures and, consequently, their growth possibilities.”