The Coming Liquidity Crisis Means Companies Have to Consolidate

If you’re calling Steve Wybo, your business is probably not in a great place. Wybo advises what his firm calls “distressed and underperforming companies and their constituents,” which means he takes calls from executives up a creek. At advisory firm Conway MacKenzie Inc., he represents mostly auto industry suppliers, along with consumer-product and industrial clients. Since the auto industry is an economic bellwether—sales crash earlier and recover more slowly than those of other sectors in a recession—Wybo has a firsthand look at the kinds of negotiations private companies are having right now and what those wranglings tell us about how the next six months could shape up. Here are edited excerpts from his interview with Arianne Cohen:

● Why haven’t a lot of companies gone out of business so far?