CROs · Restructuring Advisors · Management Teams
Turnaround Asset Disposition: Liquidity, on a Date You Can Model
Inside a restructuring, an idle asset is not clutter. It is a liquidity line item with a due date. KD Auctions works with chief restructuring officers, turnaround advisors, and management teams to convert surplus and non-core equipment into cash on a schedule the 13-week model can actually rely on, whether the plan is right-sizing a footprint or winding a facility down. We are onsite within 48 to 72 hours and can put a firm, bankable number in front of your committee inside a week.
Disposition Is a Liquidity Decision, Not a Cleanup Project
The question a turnaround asks is never simply "what is this worth." It is "how much cash, landing in which week, at what confidence level." Those are three separate variables and they trade against each other.
A managed auction generally produces the highest gross and the widest outcome band. A direct purchase produces a lower gross with a firm number and a firm date. Somewhere in between sits a hybrid that fixes a floor on the assets that matter most and leaves the rest exposed to competition.
We quote all three, with the timing tail attached, so what enters the model is a range with a confidence attached rather than a single optimistic figure that someone has to defend at the next lender call. An estimate that overshoots by twenty percent is not a rounding error in a 13-week; it is a covenant conversation.
Two Paths: Right-Size, or Wind Down
Right-sizing is the harder engagement, because the business is still operating. Consolidating two plants into one, retiring a product line, shedding redundant capacity after an acquisition, exiting a cell that never earned its floor space. Production continues, customers cannot be given a reason to re-source, the workforce should not learn about the plan from a listing photograph, and removal has to be sequenced around a live run schedule. All of that is manageable, but only if the disposition plan is built around the operating plan rather than dropped on top of it.
Wind-down has a different pressure profile. The lease surrender date is usually the immovable object, and the workforce is departing, which means the institutional knowledge about which machine has the good spindle and which one has been down since March walks out the door on a known date. We capture that knowledge in the first walkthrough, because it is worth real money at sale time and it is unrecoverable a month later.
Most engagements are honestly a mix: a partial disposition now to fund runway, with an option on the balance depending on how the plan performs.
Valuation Inputs the 13-Week Model Can Use
We work to the cadence your model needs, not the cadence an appraisal firm prefers.
Days, for planning. A desktop value bracket good enough to build a scenario around, delivered fast, clearly labeled as an estimate rather than an opinion of value.
Formal, for the file. An AMEA-certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal for the lender's credit file, the borrowing base, or an impairment test, with Orderly Liquidation Value and Forced Liquidation Value stated separately. The gap between OLV and FLV is exactly the value of time, and quantifying it is often what justifies funding a longer runway instead of forcing a fire sale.
A cash curve, not a lump. Even a direct purchase has a removal period, and auction proceeds land after settlement rather than on the hammer date. We give you week-by-week expected receipts so proceeds sit in the right rows of the model.
Speed and Certainty, When the Plan Needs Both
Cash purchase. Offer in 24 to 72 hours, funds typically 3 to 7 days after acceptance, removal in 1 to 2 weeks. This is the instrument when a payroll date, a critical vendor payment, or a forbearance milestone is the binding constraint.
Managed auction. 6 to 10 weeks, fully online, marketed to our 500,000+ industry contacts. Higher expected recovery, wider band, and a date you can commit to at the outset.
Hybrid. Cash on the anchor assets to fund the runway, auction on the balance for upside. In practice this is what most turnarounds should be doing, and it is the structure a firm with only one channel cannot offer.
Fees are tailored to the engagement and quoted upfront, and most sellers pay nothing out of pocket, which matters more than usual when the whole exercise exists because cash is constrained. We also invite pre-auction offers on major assets, so a strategic buyer who wants a specific line does not have to wait for a sale date to make you a number.
Selling Quietly While the Plant Still Runs
Confidentiality in a turnaround is not a preference, it is a condition of the plan working. Our standard protocol: no signage at the facility until you authorize it, listing copy that describes the assets without naming the seller, photography scheduled off-shift, virtual walkthroughs so buyers evaluate remotely instead of walking your floor, inspection restricted to a controlled window, and removal scheduled outside production hours.
We also sequence around your announcement plan. The disposition timeline gets built after we know when employees, customers, and suppliers are being told, not before. Our 500,000+ industry contacts receive the offering. They do not receive your situation.
Keeping the Capital Structure Aligned
Equipment leaving the collateral pool moves the borrowing base, and a disposition that surprises an ABL lender creates a problem larger than the proceeds solve. We work in the open with the lender group: appraisal delivered in a format the credit file accepts, proposed lot-level proceeds allocation available before the sale, release and consent mechanics coordinated with counsel, and settlement accounting detailed enough to support proceeds application without a reconciliation exercise.
Because the same firm produced the inventory, the appraisal, and the marketing record, all of it carries forward intact if the case later converts into a formal proceeding. Nothing has to be rebuilt from scratch under a court's clock, which is precisely when rebuilding is most expensive.
Credentials & Standing
Licensed and bonded.
Auctioneer licensed and bonded in every state that requires it.
Court-accepted appraisals.
AMEA-certified and USPAP-compliant, accepted by lenders, courts, and the IRS.
Industry membership.
MDNA, AMEA, NAA, and NABT.
Insured and documented.
Professional liability and errors and omissions coverage, with credential and insurance documentation available on request.
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Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How is turnaround asset disposition different from a bankruptcy or receivership sale?
Timing and control. In a turnaround the company still controls its assets and is selling by choice, so it keeps discretion over confidentiality, sequencing, and which channel to use, and it can take the 6 to 10 weeks a managed auction needs. Once a matter converts to a receivership or a bankruptcy case, the process becomes court-supervised, the record requirements harden, and speed is dictated by an order rather than by the plan. Selling earlier almost always recovers more.
How fast can we get a number we can put in the 13-week?
We are onsite within 48 to 72 hours of engagement, and a desktop value bracket for planning purposes usually follows within days of that walkthrough. A formal AMEA-certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal for the lender's file takes longer, with expedited turnaround available when a credit committee or forbearance deadline requires it. We label estimates as estimates so nothing preliminary ends up cited as an opinion of value.
Can we sell equipment while the line is still running?
Yes, and most right-sizing engagements do exactly that. We catalog and photograph off-shift, restrict inspection to a controlled window, and sequence removal so operating cells come out last and only after their work has transferred. The sale calendar gets built around your production and transfer schedule, which is the opposite of how a wind-down is planned and the main reason the two paths need different approaches.
Will a public auction damage our relationships with customers or suppliers?
It does not have to. Listings can describe assets without naming the seller, there is no signage at the facility until you authorize it, and because our auctions are fully online, buyers evaluate remotely rather than walking through your building. The announcement sequence is yours to set and we build the timeline behind it. Where discretion is paramount, a private treaty or direct purchase avoids a public sale event entirely.
Should we take the cash offer or run the auction?
It depends on which variable is binding. If a specific date has to be met with a specific dollar amount, the certainty of a direct purchase is usually worth the discount to expected auction proceeds. If the runway supports 6 to 10 weeks, the auction generally recovers more. We will quote both, show the timing tail on each, and tell you plainly which one we would take if it were our balance sheet.
What does the engagement cost, and does it come out of proceeds?
Fees are tailored to the engagement and quoted upfront, and most sellers pay nothing out of pocket, with costs recovered from proceeds rather than invoiced in advance. That structure matters in a restructuring, where an upfront professional fee competes directly with payroll. You get complete economics in writing before committing, and per-lot settlement accounting afterward.
Do you provide appraisals our lender will accept?
Yes. Our appraisals are AMEA-certified and USPAP-compliant, and are accepted by lenders, courts, and the IRS. We report Orderly Liquidation Value and Forced Liquidation Value separately, with methodology and value definitions stated, in a format that goes directly into a credit file or supports a borrowing base certificate without additional work on the lender's side.
Every Deal Is Different.
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