Simon Skelton

Simon Skelton is a Managing Director in the Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment. Simon has over 10 years of experience in corporate finance and expert testimony and a further 15 years of commercial experience in legal practice. He has industry expertise in mining and mining services, manufacturing, retail, financial and professional services and in managed investment schemes.

Simon‘s diverse experience spans a range of disciplines, including all types of formal insolvency, class actions, general advisory work and expert testimony. Simon typically works on major corporate restructures (including operations and treasury management), financial due diligence, expert testimony on financial loss, solvency and professional duties and class action claim adjudication and settlement scheme distributions.

Significant engagements

• Restructuring: Corporate restructure of ASX listed company with Brazilian mining operations, including debt trade and equity recapitalisation; Chapter 7 and VA contingency planning for ASX listed global mining service company requiring a restructure of its debt obligations to noteholders (4,500+ workforce, annual revenue AU$1bn); controlled wind down of utility broker and management consultant (750+ workforce, annual revenue AU$150m).
• Operations: Operations management of Queensland Nickel during voluntary administration (550+ workforce, annual revenue AU$700 million); operating and financial management of off-set printing company during voluntary administration (150+ workforce, annual revenues $30m).
• Due diligence: Working capital due diligence of university pathway and vocational education provider (annual revenue AU$300m); red flag due diligence of mining service companies (annual revenues AU$110m) for global special situations fund; cash flow lend analysis for financial institution lending to helicopter rescue service (secured debt AU$30m).
• Expert testimony: Expert witness court reports for Supreme Court and Federal Court proceedings including duties of receivers, solvency and appropriateness of financial forecasts.
• Class actions: Adjudication of claims against an insolvent ASX listed company (3,000 creditors, claims AU$85m); quantifying distributions for an AU$150 million+ class action settlement on behalf of ASX listed litigation funder.