The first time he received a call from a banker-client about Le Groupe Fuller Landau Inc.’s Asset Based Lending capabilities, Patrick Sullivan remembers replying, “Asset-based what?”

Patrick, a corporate turnaround and insolvency specialist and President of Le Groupe Fuller Landau Inc. division, chuckles at the memory. Not long after, he and his team began developing an Asset Based Lending template for a specific bank, and the formula has become a calling card of distinction for the firm’s financial engineering endeavors.

“The challenge of our (financial engineering/reorganizing) business is to have the ability, in a very short time span, to reorganize the problems of a company and not necessarily find the solution but to have a good idea of what that solution is,” explains Patrick. “You have to be able to respond to the needs of our clients, which for us, generally, are banks. The big challenge is extracting the information required for the bank from people who are going through a difficult time, emotionally and financially. You have to gain the confidence of these people so that they will provide you with the information.”

In the end, Patrick derives the most satisfaction from a business turnaround that is feasible for all parties. “Not only will the bank be happy, because it will be able to continue to work with that particular client, but it establishes a certain allegiance whereby we would be able to transfer the client to an audit partner.”