Managing partner, Stephen Cork, is the great-grandson of the firm’s founder, William Henry Cork, who established the firm more than a century ago. Photo: Cork Gully

Managing partner, Stephen Cork, is the great-grandson of the firm’s founder, William Henry Cork, who established the firm more than a century ago. Photo: Cork Gully

The London-based restructuring firm Cork Gully has opened a new office on rue de l’Eau to advise and manage challenged and tail-end investment funds in the grand duchy.

Cork Gully announced the move in May and the office officially opened on 24 July. Five staff currently run the Luxembourg office. Stephen Cork, managing partner of Cork Gully, said the expansion presents a “valuable opportunity for our firm to showcase our restructuring and asset management capabilities.”

In addition to Luxembourg, Cork Gully has operations in New York, Jersey, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands. The firm provides specific consulting services to manage the sale of residual assets and portfolio companies, manage service provider and investor relationships, and carry out the requisite distributions to investors, when closing down a fund.

“There has been increased interest among firms more recently either to resolve disputes in funds, to manage inherent conflicts of interest, or to allow managers to hand off the tail end period, to be able to focus on current private equity funds and new fund launches,” Cork said in a press release.

Founded by William Henry Cork in 1906 under the name WH Cork & Co, the firm initially worked with struggling grocery businesses. In 1935, a partnership was formed with William’s son Kenneth and Harry Gully, leading to the establishment of Cork Gully. Over time, the firm evolved into a specialised insolvency practice and eventually merged with Coopers & Lybrand, later becoming PwC. In 2010, Stephen Cork, great-grandson of William Henry Cork, acquired Cork Gully from PwC and established Cork Gully LLP, a restructuring and insolvency firm based in London.

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