Bankrupt healthcare and food, beverage and consumer companies' relatively high reorganization multiples and stable cash flow profiles promoted mostly strong recoveries at the first-lien level, according to a new Fitch Ratings report.

"Healthcare and food, beverage and consumer companies' are comparatively noncyclical, with bankruptcy filings for most of the cases analyzed largely driven by idiosyncratic challenges," said Judah Gross, Director.

The average ultimate recovery rate was 85%. The median exit multiples of reorganization enterprise value/forward EBITDA forecast were 6.3x, slightly higher than the cross-sector median of 6.2x.

Unsecured debt issues had an average recovery rate of 30%,, with a wide dispersion of outcomes from 0% to 100%. Unsecured claim recovery rates were dependent on enterprise valuation, future business prospects and liability structure.

The bankruptcy processes resulted in median debt reduction of 71% from petition date to emergence date.