Key team members: Ritankar Sahu, Vasudev Nair, Gary Chan

Team size: Five

Focus on… Our legal team

TLC is a property developer with a specialised expertise in sustainable modular construction, successfully delivering projects across Asia-Pacific and is in the process of expanding to the United Kingdom and the United States. Following Goldman Sachs asset management’s investment in TLC Group, a turbulent Q4 2022 and H1 2023 saw TLC’s legal and financial controls team thrust into the spotlight as they undertook a series of transformative projects at TLC including a highly complex, cross-border reorganisation.  Under the leadership of Ritankar Sahu, general counsel and chief compliance officer, the team (consisting of the general counsel, finance controller (Gary Chan) and two directors in Singapore, with active support from the group chief financial officer, Vasudev Nair) steered TLC through various debt restructurings with alternative capital providers, negotiated with existing creditors to write-off an overwhelming debt burden and successfully rebalanced the capital structure of TLC.  Leveraging on the team’s extensive restructuring and turnaround experience, they were able to work strategically with a carefully selected team of external advisors to deliver creative and cost-effective solutions for TLC.

Dealing with distressed assets is inherently complex due to the perennial risk of default. Ensuring adequate resourcing for anti-enforcement funds and having a failsafe strategy to thwart an event of default is quite next to impossible. This is a fundamental challenge for navigating distressed assets, and then determining how much to spend on compliance efforts presents a balancing act. The compelling need to preserve cash but still spending enough to have operational control alongside recognition of ‘true’ contingent liabilities is something that the team has been doing for a while now. Even in the face of this adversity, the highly accomplished legal and financial controls team continues to act as trusted counsellors to senior management and the board of directors, not only through high pressure restructurings, but also on a wide-ranging compliance program, which includes implementing policies on FCPA enforcement, audit and internal controls, supply chain integrity, diversity and inclusion as well as an extensive ESG agenda.