Aspen Consulting provides it's clients a number of activities associated in the area of Corporate Development. These include Assisting Management Under Financial Duress, Financing Small and Medium Companies, and Management Counseling.

Assisting Companies in Financial Duress-often companies undergo severe financial stress. Losses mount and management responds with actions that exacerbate the problems due to increased cash pressures. Normally this is a time of precise crisis management. Sometimes the corrective actions can be very obvious to analyze but very difficult to accomplish. Aspen has aided a number of companies over the years in defining and implementing strategies to turnaround operations and restore the company to health. Some examples:

• Aspen assisted the management of an American Stock Exchange Company in developing and executing a strategic plan that enabled the company to repay $22 million of loans in default to its bank group. Aspen assisted in the closing and selling of unprofitable business units. The efforts involved cost reductions, debt restructuring and strategic planning.
• Aspen reorganized a specialty transportation company with defaulted loans of $3 million by selling off segments of the company and refinancing them, and then initiating strategies to raise prices and turnaround operations. The defaulted loans were paid off.
• Aspen worked with a construction firm to reorganize under a Chapter XI, which allowed for a refinancing of its debts and the raising of additional capital.

Financing Small and Medium Companies-Aspen and it's associates are able to provide financial counseling and assistance in the financing of acquisitions or restructuring of debt. Aspen has relationships with a number of financial institutions that are able to meet the needs of the individual firm. Some representative examples include:

• Aspen prepared a business plan and negotiated lender and equity financing that lead to a leveraged buyout of a division of a major machinery manufacturer. Aspen procured acquisition financing of $7 million, developed asset liquidation strategy and arranged a minority equity investment by a NYSE company. Aspen then refinanced the debt portion with another lender within two years at more favorable terms and rates.
• Aspen assisted management in the leveraged buyout of a coated fabrics company. Aspen arranged financing and developed business strategies that allowed the management to pay off the acquisition debt within one year.
• Aspen arranged project financing for a hydroelectric project that funded the project with 110% of the project cost using industrial revenue bonds.

Management Counseling - Aspen's activities include management counseling. This covers a broad range of areas and includes such items as strategic planning function, performing operational and cost reduction reviews and assessing the organizational structure for strengths and weaknesses.

Quite often the difference in success from one firm to the next is the commitment to strategic planning and having a business focus. Included herein is an outline of a business plan that assists in the self examination of the business. Whether a company is looking to expand internally or through acquisition, a needs assessment and development of a cohesive plan is essential. The outline was prepared by the Sloan School of Management at MIT and is a focused approach to planning. Some representative examples of this service are:

• Assisted a financial buying group in defining an acquisition strategy for building products that separates channels of distribution, manufacturing entities and products to allow for broad geographic coverage and vertical integration. Thereafter Aspen identified candidates that have met the criteria for the strategy that have resulted in a number of acquisitions.
• Prepared and devised European acquisition and licensing strategy for international chemical manufacturer which resulted in several key acquisitions and a dominant position in the European market and third world nations as a major international player.
• Worked with an international manufacturer in the divestiture of several disparate business units.
• Assisted a window manufacturer in the assessment of their material suppliers that resulted in a 25% reduction of select material costs.
• Counseled a window manufacturer on automated equipment to reduce labor costs and improve productivity in different areas of production.

While there are no universal solutions to a company's needs, we believe we are able to identify the problems and resources necessary to provide those solutions.