Based in Vienna, Austria, Michael Cullinane is a partner at Schottentor Capital. Michael began his restructuring career in the early 1990’s, during which he worked with U.S. based financial institutions in the restructuring and recovery phases for real estate and developer loans. He then moved to Slovakia in 1994 to lead The Recovery Group’s restructuring practice there, and assisted the Slovak government in the successful turnaround and privatization of over a dozen enterprises. Upon return to the United States in 1998, Michael worked with the Recovery Group and then his own firm, providing interim management, capital raising, and sell-side advisory services to companies requiring balance sheet and operational restructuring. Michael is a Certified Public Accountant with extensive experience in manufacturing, having served as both interim CFO and COO in diverse industries – including machinery, furniture, building and road construction, food distribution, and the airline industry, among others.
In 2011, Michael returned to Central Europe to join a private equity group acquiring distressed assets in the region, including investments in Poland and Romania. In 2017 he and a partner teamed up with New York-based Chatham Lane Capital to create Schottentor Capital, an alternative asset management platform focusing on distressed debt in CEE and Southern Europe. Schottentor seeks to take advantage of the attractive pricing for non-performing loans and UTPs across the region, and has designed an investment strategy that leverages the team’s ability to actively manage assets and source exceptional opportunities.