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Overview
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Experience
Introduction
Richard is a seasoned restructuring and insolvency partner advising directors, creditors, funds and financiers on complex debt restructuring, turnarounds and distressed transactions.
Richard Johnson’s core experience is in debt restructuring and corporate insolvency. Richard has practiced in that area since 2003 and services a loyal client base that includes directors, creditors, financiers, funds, corporates and corporate finance / restructuring practitioners. Richard advises on both formal and informal restructuring, insolvency and turnaround engagements and regularly provides advice on the insolvent trading safe harbor regime, creditors' rights and security enforcement and distressed acquisitions and disposals. His practice encompasses both consensual and contested debt restructuring matters.
- FTI Consulting | 2025 | Advised FTI as receivers and managers of Northern Iron in relation to the sale of the company through a deed of company arrangement and the re-setting of secured debt and offtake arrangements to continue post-completion. The matter also entailed the conduct of a limited trade-on and ultimate wind-down care and maintenance strategy, the conduct of a sale and recapitalization process, litigation in relation to PPSA vesting claims, consideration of royalty/DOCA claim extinguishment issues and a successful application to Court for relief under section 444GA of the Corporations Act to effect the transfer of ownership of Northern Iron to the DOCA proponent.
- McGrathNicol | 2025 to present | Advised McGrathNicol as receivers and managers of Strandline Resources Ltd and Coburn Resources Pty Ltd. In addition to leading the restructuring and transaction workstreams, which resulted in the sale of the underlying mineral sands project by way of DOCA to Japanese interests, Richard led a 'true employer' application in the Federal Court, the outcome of which will determine aspects of the fund flow within the Coburn DOCA.
- Trafigura and KordaMentha | 2025 | Acted for Trafigura, a leading global commodities trader, and KordaMentha as receivers and managers appointed over Trafigura’s secured property in the Vulcan Mine, an open cut coal mine in the Bowen Basin, Queensland. The engagement involved advising on the appointment of KordaMentha as receivers and managers and Cor Cordis as voluntary administrators over entities in the Vitrinite Group, a privately owned company with an extensive portfolio of coking coal tenements. Our work encompasses all aspects of the receivership process including the sale and restructuring of the Vitrinite Group by the receivers (and ancillary structuring and funding issues).
- McGrathNicol | 2026 to present | Acted for McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators of a number of entities within the WACO Kwikform Group, a leading provider of scaffolding, formwork and industrial services across Australia and New Zealand. The engagement encompassed both Australian and New Zealand administration processes, advising on trade-on strategies, the realization and sale of the group's businesses, security and priority issues and related matters across multiple entities and jurisdictions within the group structure.
- Confidential | 2024 to present | Acting for a confidential client in relation to complex contractual arrangements with a power producer. The engagement involves advising on the stabilization of the operator’s financial position through a funding support package, in the context of significant regulatory reforms to the wholesale electricity market (and the operator's project finance arrangements).
- McGrathNicol | 2025 | Advised McGrathNicol as administrator of Therapy Focus Limited, a not-for-profit, including in relation to the sale of the company through a deed of company arrangement. At a challenging time for participants operating under the National Disability Insurance Scheme, we assisted with the successful restructure of Therapy Focus with an outcome that enabled Therapy Focus to retain its existing structure, maintain all staff and locations, continue service delivery for clients and families with no interruption and repay creditors in full.
- Confidential | 2025 to present | Acted for entities involved in the development of one of the world’s largest mineral sands deposits. Advised the companies in connection with their negotiations with senior secured lenders, including in relation to the restructuring of existing financing arrangements and the management of senior lender relationships and related standstill and restructuring endeavors.
- Cor Cordis | 2024 to present | Acted for Cor Cordis in relation to the voluntary administration of Cocos Islands Co-operative Society Ltd, a co-operative incorporated and domiciled in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The Co-operative, which is owned by the Cocos Malay Muslim community members of the Islands, provides a number of essential services to the inhabitants of the Islands, including accommodation, hospitality, retail services, stevedoring services as well as the only ferry service between the Islands.
- Confidential | 2025 to present | Advised financiers in connection with a proposed refinancing of a major gold mining operation. The engagement involved consideration of restructuring pathways, hedge counterparty exposure, cross-default implications and intercreditor considerations arising from a proposed streaming facility.