From Journalism to Strategic Communications

“I spend most of my time trying to downplay the stuff that you find fascinating, right?,” Joele Frank Partner Michael Freitag says. “The inter-creditor interaction, the creditor versus sponsor interaction, the creditor versus issuer action. We try to position all of that as this noise, this thing going off to the side, being managed by sophisticated investors and sophisticated advisors.” In this episode of The State of Distressed Debt, Freitag discusses with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Noel Hebert and Phil Brendel how distressed companies’ strategic communications have evolved over the past 30 years. (6:20) Freitag delves into the crafting and sequencing of press releases and 8-Ks as part of a comprehensive restructuring strategy, stressing that accurate, timely communications are critical to combat the growing presence of “dark arts” in social media. The podcast concludes with BI’s Negisa Balluku joining Hebert and Brendel for a roundtable discussion on Spirit Airlines, LifeScan, At Home, Azul, TPI Composites, Claire’s and QVC Group. (1:14:00)