The M&A Advisor announced the winners of the 16th Annual Turnaround Awards on May 31, 2022. Aaron Hammer and his team at HMB Legal Counsel (“HMB”) have been named winners for the Out-of-Court Restructuring Deal of the Year. The team is being recognized for its representation of Europa Sports Products, LLC (“Europa”) in its successful sale to Europa Sports Partners, LLC (“ESP”). Awards will be presented at a Black-Tie Gala on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, in New York City.

“Since 2002, we have been honoring the leading turnaround transactions, companies and dealmakers. HMB was chosen from hundreds of participating companies to receive the award. It gives us a great pleasure to recognize HMB and bestow upon them our highest honor for distressed investing and restructuring firms and professionals,” said Roger Aguinaldo, Founder and CEO of The M&A Advisor. “HMB represents the best of the distressed investing and reorganization industry in 2021 and earned these honors by standing out in a group of very impressive candidates.”

“Congratulations to the entire HMB team and other professionals and professional firms involved in this extraordinary effort which preserved Europa’s core business and nearly 150 jobs of its employees. Long-standing relationships amongst the professional teams involved in the transaction were critical to its success, and without the trust underlying these working relationships, Europa would surely have been liquidated outright. It is a tribute to the professional teams representing sometimes very divergent interests to have achieved this truly outstanding result,” said Aaron L. Hammer, Chair of HMB’s Bankruptcy, Reorganization & Creditors’ Rights Group, and leader of the HMB team for Europa in the transaction and related corporate wind-down.

HMB’s team included: Aaron L. Hammer, Keith H. Berk, Nathan E. Delman, Dante (Dan) Wen, Casey Rivard, Elise Anderson and the late John W. Guzzardo.

The Awards Gala is a feature of the 2022 Leadership in Dealmaking Summit. The Summit will take place on September 20-21, 2022 and will feature over 350 of the industry’s leading professionals participating in exclusive interactive forums, sessions, roundtable discussions, one-on-one meetings and a solutions provider showcase led by a faculty of restructuring industry stalwarts and business media experts. For an event profile CLICK HERE.

For a complete list of winners CLICK HERE.

ABOUT EUROPA

For over 30 years, Europa distributed nutritional and sports supplements to wholesalers across the country. The COVID-19 pandemic crippled Europa’s business, and in March 2021 Europa was preparing to lay off close to 150 employees and liquidate the company in bankruptcy court. At the eleventh hour, AFI Capital Partners began sale negotiations with Europa to acquire substantially all of Europa’s assets through a private UCC foreclosure sale. The sale closed soon thereafter, saving nearly 150 employees’ jobs and deleveraging the balance sheet so the company could reasonably operate going forward without massive interest or other historical obligations. Oxford Restructuring Advisors subsequently assumed control of “old” Europa and has nearly fully administered the wind-down of its corporate affairs.

THE M&A ADVISOR

Now in its 22nd year, The M&A Advisor was founded to offer insights and intelligence on mergers and acquisitions, establishing the industry’s leading media outlet in 1998. Today, the firm is recognized as the world’s premier leadership organization for mergers & acquisition, restructuring and corporate finance professionals, delivering a range of integrated services from offices in New York and London. www.maadvisor.com.

ABOUT HMB

HMB attorneys serve as trusted business and legal advisers to middle market businesses, Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs throughout the United States. HMB’s Bankruptcy Reorganization & Creditors’ Rights practice is comprised of leading attorneys providing legal services in complex chapter 11 cases, creditors’ rights issues and all situations involving the financial distress of clients or their customers. HMB’s attorneys have been recognized by Chambers USA: Leading Lawyers for Business and Turnaround & Workouts; and quoted by The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, as leaders in the field.

In 2020, HMB was recognized by the Turnaround Management Association’s (TMA) Chicago/Midwest Chapter with its Small Business Turnaround of the Year for its representation of RED South Beach.  In 2014, HMB's Bankruptcy Practice Chair, Aaron Hammer, received the TMA Global’s Large Transaction of the Year for his work as counsel to the Official Committee of Equity Security Holders in the highly publicized bankruptcy cases, In re AgFeed USA, et al. (Bankr. D. Del.).