DealMakers - Q3 2025 (released November 2025)
Business Rescue Practitioners: the dealmakers of the future
by Tobie Jordaan and Jess Osmond​
For many years, “business rescue” has been a phrase that made company directors and lenders uneasy. It carried the sense of failure, of a business reaching a dead end. In boardrooms, its mention often brought to mind job losses, creditor disputes and liquidation sales.
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But that perception is changing. In South Africa, business rescue has evolved into one of the most effective and creative tools for restructuring and dealmaking. It is no longer merely a defensive measure to delay collapse; it has become a strategic process for unlocking value, facilitating acquisitions, and preserving businesses that would otherwise be lost.
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At the heart of this shift is a new breed of professional: business rescue practitioners who are not traditional insolvency specialists, but restructuring specialists. They bring commercial and financial insight into distressed situations, often shaping outcomes that deliver real value. Increasingly, they are becoming the dealmakers of the future; professionals who can turn moments of financial distress into structured opportunities for investors, creditors and employees alike.
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Recent South African examples illustrate this evolution. The restructurings of Rebosis Property Fund, the sale of West Pack Lifestyle, and the earlier turnaround of AutoTrader show how business rescue can act as a bridge between crisis and opportunity. These are not stories of collapse, but of reinvention – of brands surviving and thriving under new ownership. They show how business rescue can serve both as a lifeline for struggling companies, and as a springboard for investors looking for structured opportunities in the distressed market.
Tobie Jordaan
Jess Osmond
Business rescue provides a legal and commercial “safe harbour” for companies facing financial pressure – a chance to pull off the highway, take stock, and chart a new route before getting back on the road. It gives management the space to reorganise, while protecting against creditor action and creating a stable environment for negotiations. For investors, this creates a unique opportunity.
Deals can be structured within a regulated framework, with defined timelines and transparent processes. Buyers can often acquire assets free from legacy liabilities, allowing the business to restart cleanly and sustainably. Because the process is governed by statute and subject to court oversight, outcomes carry enforceability and certainty rarely found in informal restructurings.
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Unlike liquidation, where value is eroded and operations cease, business rescue is designed to preserve going-concern value. It protects employees, maintains business continuity, and supports competitive sale processes that help achieve better recoveries for creditors. In an economy marked by volatility, weak demand and tight liquidity, that structure and predictability are invaluable.
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The role of the business rescue practitioner has also changed significantly. Today’s practitioners act as strategists, negotiators and facilitators – coordinating stakeholders, engaging investors, and managing the commercial process from stabilisation through to exit. Empowered by the provisions of Chapter 6 of the Companies Act, business rescue practitioners are uniquely positioned to design and execute transactions that balance competing interests and unlock value. Supported by legal representation, they are financial advisors who, through the business rescue process, are also able to act, in many respects, as investment bankers — the glue that holds complex restructurings together.
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In many ways, they are the navigators who help distressed companies find a new path when the road ahead seems blocked. By bridging the gap between law and commerce, practitioners have become key enablers of South Africa’s modern restructuring ecosystem.
Business rescue also offers features that make it particularly suited to structured transactions. Outcomes are guided by a statutory plan and subject to oversight, which reduces the risk of challenge or reversal. Buyers often acquire businesses free from old liabilities, providing a clean foundation for growth. The process itself is controlled and transparent, giving stakeholders visibility and confidence, while structured and accelerated sale processes typically attract more bidders and deliver better value than informal distressed sales.
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Two mechanisms stand out as powerful levers in this environment: post-commencement finance (PCF), and the acquisition of secured claims. PCF keeps a business trading through the rescue process, and gives financiers both repayment priority and influence over key decisions. For investors, providing PCF is often the best way to gain a seat at the table and help shape the direction of the restructuring. Similarly, acquiring secured claims – as seen in the Murray & Roberts restructuring – allows investors to step into the position of major creditors. With that voting power comes the ability to drive outcomes that preserve value and create long-term strategic advantage.
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The message for boards and investors is clear: business rescue is not the end of the road; it is a reset button. It creates the space for reinvention, the structure for credible transactions, and the framework for real value recovery. Those who learn to engage early – by identifying distressed assets, providing PCF, acquiring claims, and partnering with practitioners – will be best placed to seize the opportunities that these processes create.
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When the market begins to see business rescue through this positive lens, business rescue practitioners will rightly be recognised as the dealmakers of the future; the professionals who help turn financial dead ends into new routes, and guide South African businesses back onto the road to recovery.
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Jordaan is a Partner and Osmond a Senior Associate | Bowmans South Africa
