Vol. 01 — Distressed Capital Structures
When the balance sheet breaks, someone has to redraw it.
The Capital Stack is an editorial archive of case studies on companies that underwent major capital restructurings — Chapter 11 reorganizations, leveraged buyouts under distress, debt-for-equity swaps. Each file traces the circumstances, the process, and the resulting capital structure, illustrated with before-and-after stacks.
Each file follows a fixed structure: circumstances leading to the restructuring, the process by which it was resolved, and the resulting capital structure. Sources are restricted to public bankruptcy filings, court records, plans of reorganization, SEC disclosures, and contemporaneous reporting from legal and financial press. Every case is paired with a working financial model that reconstructs the pre- and post-emergence capital stack — figures are illustrative, not audited.
The archive exists to make the mechanics of corporate restructuring legible outside the professional silos in which they usually live — bankruptcy counsel, restructuring bankers, distressed credit funds. It is written for readers who want to understand what a debt-for-equity swap actually looks like on a balance sheet, and why one leveraged buyout survives Chapter 11 while another liquidates.