Luke Pittorino

Luke’s notable engagements span across many different areas, including company restructuring advisory, lender restructuring advisory, operational turnarounds, and formal restructurings, (including voluntary administrations, receiverships, and liquidations). Luke also regularly undertakes safe harbour and expert witness matters.

Prior to Ankura, Luke spent time at a global corporate real estate business, where he was part of the EMEA finance leadership community. There, he was responsible for the efficient operation of the finance function, as well as for providing strategic insights to business leadership.

Luke’s professional experience includes:

• Administration and Deed of Company Arrangement of ASX listed national beer and distillery owner and operator Mighty Craft. The secured lender ultimately took control of the company through the Administration process, which included a Court application and moving claims to a Creditors’ Trust.
• Administration and Deed of Company Arrangement of nationwide accommodation and hospitality business Tourism Adventure Group which included the trading on of numerous venues, a successful recapitalisation of the business and subsequent dividend distribution to creditors.
• Administration and Deed of Company Arrangement of kikki.K, a stationery retailer with stores across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore which resulted in sale of business to an industry player, ongoing employment for hundreds of employees and a meaningful return to creditors.
• Administration and Deed of Company Arrangement of Coffex Coffee, one of Australia’s oldest coffee roasters with operations across Australia and New Zealand. The business of Coffex was sold to an industry player after a successful trading period.
• Receivership of mining services company WDS Limited which included a long-term trade on period, an extensive asset sale program and eventual wind down of operations.
• Post-acquisition operations review and implementation of performance improvement initiatives on behalf of a private equity buyer of a national office supplies business.
• Multiple expert witness matters (assisting Quentin Olde) relating to matters of solvency (Arrium, Max Brenner, Co-op Bookstores), Deed of Company Arrangement set-aside applications (Comlek), purported breaches of financing arrangements (Arrium) and quantification of potential claims under contractual arrangements (Alpha Flight Services / Qantas).
• Safe harbour and restructuring advisory matters involving numerous companies (ranging from local start ups to international businesses with global operations) undertaking turnaround plans and implementing restructuring initiatives.