Debt Restructuring and Liquidity Command Leader — Mining Services

The mandate

A production interruption and delayed customer certification pushed leverage above covenant while the treasury director departed during standstill discussions. Thirteen-week cash forecasts vary materially by business unit, restricted cash is mixed with available liquidity, and lenders will not extend waivers without one executive accountable for daily cash, the independent business review and a credible restructuring proposal.

The interim must mobilise within ten days for a ten-month appointment centred in Johannesburg, with routine Cape Town operating reviews and quarterly lender meetings in London. A permanent treasury and capital-structure search will start after heads of terms are signed, and the expected overlap is one month. Extension is possible only to complete court, consent or condition-precedent steps already approved by the board.

Handover requires signed and effective restructuring documents, at least sixteen weeks of minimum liquidity headroom under the board downside, thirteen consecutive weekly forecasts within the agreed accuracy band, released or correctly ring-fenced trapped cash, and a successor who has led two lender-reporting cycles. A standstill agreement or unsigned term sheet does not meet the exit threshold.

The appointee may centralise payment release, impose cash limits, halt nonessential capital spend, appoint advisers within the sanctioned ZAR 45 million budget and negotiate restructuring terms inside the board mandate. Asset sales, new security, debt-equity exchange, retrenchment, director appointments and any deviation exceeding ZAR 150 million net present value require board consent; the interim cannot provide solvency opinions reserved for directors.

Operational mine planning, customer contract repricing and the disposal execution process sit outside this brief. The leader will quantify their cash effects and challenge unsupported assumptions but will not run sites, lead labour bargaining or act as transaction agent. This boundary protects an intense liquidity and creditor mandate from becoming a general turnaround assignment.

Why this seat is open

The covenant breach exposed a treasury model built for stable trading rather than stressed liquidity, and the responsible executive left before lender confidence could be restored. Business-unit finance heads cannot credibly arbitrate among their own payment priorities. The board needs a temporary command leader who can create one cash truth, negotiate from evidence and leave only after the solution is legally and operationally effective.

What you will own

• Establish a controlled thirteen-week direct cash forecast with entity-level bank reconciliation, confidence grading, variance attribution and downside triggers.
• Decide the daily payment order using safety, payroll, critical supply, legal priority and value-preservation criteria documented for board and lender review.
• Direct the independent business review data response and reconcile its trading, liquidity, debt and asset assumptions to management's plan.
• Negotiate covenant reset, maturity, amortisation, pricing, security, information rights and liquidity protections within the approved restructuring mandate.
• Build a sources-and-uses bridge for every restructuring option, including fees, trapped cash, tax leakage, seasonal working capital and implementation downside.
• Convene the weekly liquidity command forum and record cash releases, forecast misses, trigger breaches, owner actions and decisions reserved for directors.
• Transfer executed facilities, covenant model, cash controls, stakeholder history and a ninety-day decision calendar to the permanent treasury leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held group treasurer, restructuring CFO, chief restructuring officer or liquidity director authority through a completed multi-lender debt restructuring.
• Can evidence weekly cash forecasting that achieved stated accuracy during distress, including how optimism bias and restricted cash were corrected.
• Negotiated executable amendments across bank, bond, development-finance or private-credit stakeholders with competing security and maturity positions.
• Directed an independent business review response and reconciled the reviewer's downside case to a board-approved operational plan.
• Managed cross-border cash, exchange controls, guarantees, covenant calculations and lender reporting in Southern African operating environments.
• Completed handover only after legal effectiveness and control stabilisation, with evidence that liquidity governance endured beyond the interim assignment.

Non-negotiables

• Available to assume Johannesburg cash authority within ten days and attend the stated lender and operating sessions.
• Free of conflicts involving current lenders, prospective rescue financiers, major customers or advisers to the restructuring.
• Prepared to impose and personally defend payment triage while respecting director duties and local legal priorities.
• Has held principal-side executive authority in a restructuring; advisory analysis without cash or negotiation decision rights is insufficient.

1. 49 words maximum. State your earliest mobilisation date and the lowest liquidity headroom you have personally managed through.
2. 49 words maximum. Which forecast control most improved cash accuracy during your last stressed restructuring, and by how much?
3. 49 words maximum. Describe one lender term you rejected because its apparent liquidity benefit destroyed value elsewhere.