Debt Recovery

Companies doing business in and with Asia, Africa and the Middle East are experiencing continuing difficulties collecting receivables and principal and interest payments on loans. Varying from country to country and industry to industry, 90-day overdue receivables, dishonoured promissory notes, unpaid letters of credit, dishonoured bills of exchange and non-performing loans have reached unprecedented levels.

However, even under such demanding circumstances and as debtor bankruptcies proliferate, CI is consistently realizing high-percentage recovery rates.

We provide a complete, one-stop recovery service, ranging from issuing letters of demand, debtor/creditor conferences, provisional attachment of assets to full-scale litigation management or arbitration. Comprehensive data bases on listed and unlisted companies throughout East Asia permit fast and efficient asset searches to determine a debtor’s ability to pay and the advisability of legal proceedings. Fortnightly status reports keep clients informed on recovery progress. If so desired, we offer clients full receivables management and recovery advice and are prepared to install in-house systems to that effect.

For its debt recovery services, CI charges a one-time, non-refundable retainer fee as well as management and performance fees as percentages, respectively, of total debt at stake and recovered amounts.


Financial Fraud Investigations

In the course of debt recovery proceedings, we have frequently encountered and uncovered three principal types of financial fraud and impropriety on the part of both debtors and officers and employees of creditor companies:
- fraudulent asset and collateral transfers to third parties;
- fraudulent bankruptcies;
- improper vendor/lender-distributor/borrower relations involving disclosure of insider information, collusion, and kickbacks.
Such schemes, if undiscovered, can on one hand defeat receivables collection efforts, on the other seriously damage the integrity of company information and assets. Though initially just an element and integral part of CI's debt collection efforts, financial fraud investigations have quickly grown into a separate branch of our service to corporations.

Corporate Restructuring

Debt and overall corporate restructuring have become essential for corporate survival. Leading CI personnel have long-standing experience and a proven track record in giving advice and counsel as well as playing lead management roles in restructuring undertakings. We are prepared to assemble well-qualified teams to deal with all aspects of restructuring, ranging from intelligence collection and balance-sheet clean-up to evaluation of personnel requirements and business re-positioning.

Legal & Accounting Services

Legal and regulatory environments impacting on business fortunes are changing rapidly, as a result of financial reforms and in the aftermath of 9/11. Our in-house lawyers, accountants, and investigators are fully abreast of any new developments, from new bankruptcy and foreclosure laws, new reporting requirements demanded by disclosure laws in Europe and the USA such as the Sarbannes-Oxley and Patriot 1 and 2 legislation and new opportunities provided by liberalized investment and tax regimes in Asia.
Briefs on, as well as full texts of, new legislation are available on client request.