Private credit: recovering capital, unlocking optionality
Integrating liability engineering, operational control, and governance stewardship -converting stressed exposures into option-rich assets
Lagarde & Guardsmen is the activist advisor to the Builders.
Activist: We are with you on the long term, supporting you across your build, not only when you need it. As sentinels, if we see you moving away from your values, and ours, we address it. Our standards for you and us, above our interests, always.
Advisor: We do not advise you out of unlived experience - as entrepreneurial firm, previously investor, board member, corporate issuer, corporate borrower, lender, and consultant, we know how to engage with all stakeholders and how to build value out of it.
As Guardsmen of enduring enterprise value, we integrate financial restructuring, operational transformation, cultural redesign, and long-term growth into a single method.
This method is Enterprise Value Optimisation.
Private credit investors: strong growth in transaction volumes but widespread light terms exposure
Workout teams juggle covenants and conflicts while real transformation demands an independent, specialist lead.
Structuring counsels secure collateral, yet ignore turnaround levers, or corporate level value creation opportunities.
Multiple creditor classes, sponsor demands, and occasionally hostile equity holders feed conflicts of interests.
Credit managers inherit dual challenge of reorganizing both capital structure and assets often de-prioritizing the latter.
Determining whether to hold, restructure, or sell distressed portfolios depends on heavy, too often inexistent, strategy.
Limited restructuring capacity
Lack of unified strategy at deal level
Complex stakeholder negotiations
No value-creation during enforcement
Leaderless exit & enforcement process
Default, in or out-of-court proceedings require advisors with experience of all levels of the roundtable
Lagarde & Guardsmen exists to empower private credit investors in their structuring, restructuring, enforcement and operations initiatives focusing on borrower value optimization.
Stakeholder management
Financial restructuring
Organizational re-engineering
Strategic repositioning
Operational turnaround
One governance forum aligns all stakeholders - pre or in insolvency - compressing negotiations and ending mandate drift.
We orchestrate portfolio, deal, restructurings, securities enforcement advisory primary and secondary advisory.
We setup and execute shadow management frameworks to address leadership voids that often arise in distressed scenarios.
We assess whether strategy is best served through a buy-hold-sell structure and execute in alignment with all stakeholders.
We supervise an enterprise value restructuring in the context of buy-hold structures reviewing corporate operations.
What we do
We accompany Private Credit Investment firms through two major mandates
The Build:
The Re-Build:
Structure or upgrade investment platforms - designing capital , governance, operations, and origination frameworks.
Restructuring to preserve and recover value across distressed exposures - stepping in as operator, agent, and coordinator.
Enterprise Value Optimization (EVO)
is our end-to-end methodology for systematically enhancing every facet of your enterprise—financial, operational, strategic, and cultural—to achieve durable, long-range value creation. Rather than a transactional engagement, the EVO Mandate represents a comprehensive transformation journey.
1. Fortress Phase – Short term scan and transformation preparation
2. Catalyst Phase – Complete Structuring / Restructuring
3. Ascent Phase – Legacy Building & Compounding Resilience
Our commitment to private credit firms
We convert distressed, ill-iquid or covenant-breached exposures into disciplined, compounding assets - shifting from reactive workouts to long-term stewardship that protects downside and unlocks idiosyncratic upside.
Our playbooks span in-court and out-of-court restructurings, guarantee activations, and pre-emptive value-preservation plans, ensuring every turn of the screw is value creation oriented for all stakeholders .
Yield harvesting alone no longer wins amid growing competition and ever lighter credit terms. We embed Builder-Economy principles - creation, stewardship, compounding - to transform each rescued borrower into a durable franchise. No stakeholder is arbitraged; we engineer capital structures alongside strategy, and governance that compound value across cycles and generations.
Beyond single situations, we scale our methodology across funds, monitoring loan books, stress-testing collateral, and orchestrating cross-portfolio asset repositioning.
Builder economy stewardship
Surgical restructuring
Portfolio-wide vigilance
Lagarde & Guardsmen stands ready to elevate private credit into the Builder era as a durable, secure and pro-business source of capital as we fuse capital mastery, operational precision, and generational stewardship into one disciplined force.
We should talk.
Send us your contact request here or book an appointment below
Default, in or out-of-court proceedings require advisors with experience of all levels of the roundtable
Lagarde & Guardsmen exists to empower private credit investors in their structuring, restructuring, enforcement and operations initiatives focusing on borrower value optimization.
Workout teams juggle covenants and conflicts while real transformation demands an independent, specialist lead.
Private credit investors: strong growth in transaction volumes but widespread light terms exposure
Limited restructuring capacity
Private credit:
Recovering capital, Unlocking Optionality
Integrating liability engineering, operational control, and governance stewardship -converting stressed exposures into option-rich assets
Lagarde & Guardsmen is the activist advisor to the Builders.
Activist: We are with you on the long term, supporting you across your build, not only when you need it. As sentinels, if we see you moving away from your values, and ours, we address it. Our standards for you and us, above our interests, always.
Advisor: We do not advise you out of unlived experience - as an entrepreneurial firm, previously investor, board member, corporate issuer, corporate borrower, lender, and consultant, we know how to engage with all stakeholders and how to build value out of it.
As Guardsmen of enduring enterprise value, we integrate financial restructuring, operational transformation, cultural redesign, and long-term growth into a single method.
This method is Enterprise Value Optimisation.
Lack of unified strategy at deal level
Complex stakeholder negotiations
No value-creation during enforcement
Leaderless exit & enforcement process
Structuring counsels secure collateral, yet ignore turnaround levers, or corporate level value creation opportunities.
Multiple creditor classes, sponsor demands, and occasionally hostile equity holders feed conflicts of interests.
Credit managers inherit dual challenge of reorganizing both capital structure and assets often de-prioritizing the latter.
Determining whether to hold, restructure, or sell distressed portfolios depends on heavy, too often inexistent, strategy.
Stakeholder management
Financial restructuring
Organisational re-engineering
Strategic repositioning
Operational turnaround
We supervise an enterprise value restructuring in the context of buy-hold structures reviewing corporate operations.
We assess whether strategy is best served through a buy-hold-sell structure and execute in alignment with all stakeholders.
We setup and execute shadow management frameworks to address leadership voids that often arise in distressed scenarios.
We orchestrate portfolio, deal, restructurings, securities enforcement advisory primary and secondary advisory.
One governance forum aligns all stakeholders - pre or in insolvency - compressing negotiations and ending mandate drift.
We accompany Private credit investment firms through two major mandates
What we do
The Build:
Structure or upgrade investment platforms - designing capital , governance, operations, and origination frameworks.
Enterprise Value Optimization (EVO)
is our end-to-end methodology for systematically enhancing every facet of your enterprise - financial, operational, strategic, and organisational - to achieve durable, long-range value creation. Rather than a transactional engagement, the Build and Re-Build represent comprehensive transformation journeys.
1. Fortress Phase – Short term scan and transformation preparation
2. Catalyst Phase – Complete structuring / restructuring
3. Ascent Phase – Legacy building & compounding resilience
The Re-Build:
Restructuring to preserve and recover value across distressed exposures - stepping in as operator, agent, and coordinator.
Our playbooks span in-court and out-of-court restructurings, guarantee activations, and pre-emptive value-preservation plans, ensuring every turn of the screw is value creation oriented for all stakeholders .
Our commitment to private credit investment firms: build for the firm's legacy without jeopardising return
We convert distressed, ill-iquid or covenant-breached exposures into disciplined, compounding assets - shifting from reactive workouts to long-term stewardship that protects downside and unlocks idiosyncratic upside.
Builder economy stewardship
Surgical restructuring
Lagarde & Guardsmen is for the Builders, not for everyone.
Merging strategy, capital, culture, and operations into a single, enduring value proposition.
We should talk.
Send us your contact request here or book an appointment below
Yield harvesting alone no longer wins amid growing competition and ever lighter credit terms. We embed Builder-Economy principles - creation, stewardship, compounding - to transform each rescued borrower into a durable franchise. No stakeholder is arbitraged; we engineer capital structures alongside strategy, and governance that compound value across cycles and generations.
Beyond single situations, we scale our methodology across funds, monitoring loan books, stress-testing collateral, and orchestrating cross-portfolio asset repositioning.
Portfolio-wide vigilance