The Quaestor Advisors Approach
Our way of servicing assets combines deep understanding, vigilance, and readiness over the full life of an asset.
Understand the assets
To enhance the value of a complex asset, you must understand that asset across its structure, industry, and counterparty. The Quaestor Advisors team has the experience—and the mandate—to deeply understand each and every asset we service.
Complex credit investments are not static assets.
The complexity that can make them compelling opportunities also makes them moving targets whose status can be difficult to ascertain and outcomes hard to predict.
The Quaestor Advisors solution: Understand…surveil…be ready.
Anticipate and be ready for problems
We practice what the Roman Stoics called premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of evils: envisioning hazards and responses up front. Anticipating pitfalls, we will act quickly and effectively if trouble arises and step in to apply any required remediation ranging from loan amendments to full-scale foreclosure and asset re-optimization.
Understand the assets
To enhance the value of a complex asset, you must truly understand that asset across its structure, industry, and counterparty. The Quaestor Advisors team has the experience—and the mandate—to deeply understand each and every asset we service.
Monitor actively
With the right set of financial controls and covenants in place, the Quaestor Advisors team systematically performs ongoing surveillance, loan operations, risk assessment, valuation, and relationship management with counterparties.
Anticipate and be ready for problems
We practice what the Roman Stoics called premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of evils: envisioning hazards and responses up front. Anticipating pitfalls, we will act quickly and effectively if trouble arises and step in to apply any required remediation ranging from loan amendments to full-scale foreclosure and asset re-optimization.
Streamlined when appropriate
Quaestor Advisors is highly systematic, with efficiency a top goal. Our proprietary end-to-end IT systems can standardize a range of complex investment types for effective evaluation, continuous monitoring, control, and auditing.
High-touch when needed
Quaestor Advisors is deeply experienced with high-touch servicing and workout of stressed investments.
As an affiliate of the special-situations investment manager Arena Investors, Quaestor’s mission includes working actively and creatively to see complex investments through to successful completion.
We may even help counterparties see routes out of trouble that they themselves hadn’t imagined—a process that benefits both borrower and investor.
High-touch case studies
Upfront diligence and structuring
Upfront diligence and structuring
A loan was secured by litigation-related royalties, and there was a senior loan already in place. Quaestor Advisors worked with the investor to collateralize the investment against multiple real estate properties owned by the principal of the borrower. With the properties spanning residential and commercial (including one still under construction), we pursued a bespoke approach to securing a first lien across the real estate portfolio. Additionally, as the borrower was a highly experienced litigator, we helped structure the transaction so the investor had a pledge of ownership interest in the borrower, greatly reducing the potential for a drawn-out resolution in case of a dispute.
Unflagging surveillance
Unflagging surveillance
A loan was secured by a film and television production facility with collateral including thousands of pieces of soundstage equipment. In checking serial numbers against borrower inventory reports, Quaestor Advisors discovered enough discrepancies to threaten collateral sufficiency. We quickly went onsite to reconcile all inventory against invoices and shipping labels—across multiple studios and warehouses—and then not only applied pressure to ensure that a significant amount of undelivered equipment would be received, but also stayed onsite to ensure better controls. The borrower locked in its collateral and ultimately resolved the situation through a refinancing.
Full-scale workout
Full-scale workout
After the closing of a corporate loan, the borrower refused to transfer its bank accounts to perfect a lien as required. In catching the problem early, Quaestor Advisors issued a notice of default. The borrower contested the default and in the ensuing months filed for bankruptcy, but we had prepared the ground early to allow the lender to foreclose. Running into difficulties obtaining access to the company’s information systems, we retrieved the related physical documents from storage and used them to recreate its financial, corporate, and legal records. We stabilized the business and assisted in streamlining its operations—which enabled the lender to more than recoup its principal and interest.
Upfront diligence and structuring
A loan was secured by litigation-related royalties, and there was a senior loan already in place. Quaestor Advisors worked with the investor to collateralize the investment against multiple real estate properties owned by the principal of the borrower. With the properties spanning residential and commercial (including one still under construction), we pursued a bespoke approach to securing a first lien across the real estate portfolio. Additionally, as the borrower was a highly experienced litigator, we helped structure the transaction so the investor had a pledge of ownership interest in the borrower, greatly reducing the potential for a drawn-out resolution in case of a dispute.
Unflagging surveillance
A loan was secured by a film and television production facility with collateral including thousands of pieces of soundstage equipment. In checking serial numbers against borrower inventory reports, Quaestor Advisors discovered enough discrepancies to threaten collateral sufficiency. We quickly went onsite to reconcile all inventory against invoices and shipping labels—across multiple studios and warehouses—and then not only applied pressure to ensure that a significant amount of undelivered equipment would be received, but also stayed onsite to ensure better controls. The borrower locked in its collateral and ultimately resolved the situation through a refinancing.
Full-scale workout
After the closing of a corporate loan, the borrower refused to transfer its bank accounts to perfect a lien as required. In catching the problem early, Quaestor Advisors issued a notice of default. The borrower contested the default and in the ensuing months filed for bankruptcy, but we had prepared the ground early to allow the lender to foreclose. Running into difficulties obtaining access to the company’s information systems, we retrieved the related physical documents from storage and used them to recreate its financial, corporate, and legal records. We stabilized the business and assisted in streamlining its operations—which enabled the lender to more than recoup its principal and interest.
Vigilance and readiness
What is quite unlooked for is more crushing in its effect, and unexpectedness adds to the weight of a disaster. This is a reason for ensuring that nothing ever takes us by surprise. We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events.
Seneca