Product Description

Praise for Distress Investing

"Marty Whitman has distilled decades of distressed investing experience into a text that is a must-read for everyone interested in the field, whether a student or a professional investor."

-Wilbur L. Ross, Chairman and CEO, WL Ross & Co. LLC

"Distress Investing: Principles and Technique represents a detailed and unique perspective on an arcane arena of investment that is going to get a lot more attention. Marty Whitman is the master, and has set the standard for many years."

-Sam Zell, Chairman, Equity Group Investments, LLC

"Martin Whitman and Professor Diz have produced a seminal work on the ins and outs of distressed investing for all distressed debt investors. It is jam-packed with information and guidance for the novice and the experienced. A must-read for anyone interested in distressed investing."

-Lewis Kruger, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

"Marty Whitman, a legend in distress investing, packs decades of experience into these pages. The restructuring of the capital markets currently under way is sure to provide great distress investment opportunities, which this guide book can make count for you."

-Bruce Flatt, Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

"The principles found in this book are those I used in the reorganization of my business from bankruptcy to an S&P 500 company with an investment grade rating and a multibillion-dollar market capitalization. An excellent premier by Marty Whitman and Professor Diz, integrating economic theory with real-world investment to help investors of all shapes and sizes understand and invest in distressed securities."

-Gene Isenberg, Chairman and CEO, Nabors Industries, Inc.

"Marty Whitman, the unquestioned 'Dean' of active distressed investors, and Fernando Diz, one of the few academics specializing in distressed investing, have teamed up to provide perhaps the best and most comprehensive primer on distressed securities and markets. I learned so much from this remarkable volume."

-Edward I. Altman, Max L. Heine Professor of Finance, NYU Stern School of Business, Director of credit and debt markets research at the NYU Salomon Center and adviser to several financial institutions including, Paulson & Co. and Concordia Advisers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36719 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470117675
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
“…this is the best book that I have read since The Black Swan…do yourself a favor and pick up a copy; you'd be crazy not to.” (SeekingAlpha.com, June 11, 2009)

From the Inside Flap

Distress Investing

Principles And Technique

Financial innovation, new laws and regulations, and the financial meltdown of 2007–2008 are just a few of the forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, today's distress investment environment. Combine this with the fact that the discipline of distress investing doesn't always follow what conventional wisdom says, and you can see why it is one of the most challenging areas in finance.

Nobody understands this better than Martin Whitman—the legendary founder of Third Avenue Management LLC and a pioneer in the field of distressed markets—and leading academic Dr. Fernando Diz of Syracuse University. That's why they decided to write Distress Investing. As an outgrowth of annual distress and value investing seminars the two have taught together at Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, this reliable resource will help you gain a better understanding of the essential principles and techniques associated with distress investing and show you how to effectively apply them in the real world.

Divided into four comprehensive parts—the General Landscape of Distress Investing, Restructuring Troubled Issuers, the Investment Process, and Cases and Implications for Public Policy—this book comprehensively covers the practice of buy-and-hold investing in distressed credits, whether it be performing loans or the reinstated issues of a reorganized issuer.

From the recent changes to U.S. bankruptcy code and creditor rights to cash bailouts, you'll quickly learn how to analyze distressed situations such as pricing issues, arbitrage opportunities, tax disadvantages, and the reorganization of funding plans. Along the way, case studies of both large and small distress investing deals—from Kmart to Home Products International—will give you a better perspective of the business.

Critical topics addressed throughout these pages include:

• Chapter 11 bankruptcy and why it's not considered an ending, but rather a beginning when it comes to distress investing

• The "Five Basic Truths" of distress investing

• The difficulty of due diligence for distressed issues

• Distress investing risks from reorganization risk to risk associated with the alteration of priority of payments in bankruptcy

• Valuing companies by both going concern as well as their resource conversion attributes

In today's turbulent economic environment, distress investing presents some enticing opportunities. Put yourself in a better position to excel at this endeavor with Distress Investing as your guide.

About the Author

Martin J. Whitman is Chairman and co-CIO of Third Avenue Management LLC. He has taught courses in value investing and distressed investing for the past thirty years at the Schools of Management at both Syracuse University and Yale University. Whitman is also the author of the Wiley titles Value Investing and The Aggressive Conservative Investor.

Fernando Diz is the Martin J. Whitman Associate Professor of Finance and Director of the Ballentine Investment Institute at Syracuse University. His research specialties are in the areas of trading, derivative securities, and value and distress investing. Diz has written for the Journal of Futures Markets, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Alternative Investments.

Customer Reviews

Timely Release
Fernando Diz and Martin Whitman's Distress Investing is a practical tool to both beginner and experienced investors. Today's worldwide economic downturn has created attractive investments for distressed investors which makes this book a timely release. Distress Investing guides the reader step by step from defining distressed debt to valuation. Understanding creditor's rights and bankruptcy law allow distressed investors to capitalize on investments that are overlooked by individuals who are not knowledgeable of their securities' rights. In addition, it offers insight into many of Martin Whitman's strategies that he has employed during his long successful career of investment finance. Distress Investing is well written and provides excellent examples that make it an easy read. I would recommend this book to any individual looking to expand their knowledge base beyond equities.

Best book on the subject
I picked up this book because with the current economic crisis, it seems like anywhere I turn I am finding incredible deals. This book, however, focuses on distressed debt which is not specifically my specialty, but I definitely learned a lot from it.

The author discusses topics such as Chapter 11 reorganization, securities' rights, and the workout process. Because these special situations add another complexity level to investing, there is not that much competition from institutional investors so the opportunities for above average returns are plentiful. I would recommend this book to serious investors.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

The Basics for Bankruptcy Investing
First it should be noted that this book is not for the casual weekend investor but for the more serious investor willing to get their hands a little dirty. Also, much like Mr. Whitman's classic book "Aggressive Conservative Investor", this book too is not necessarily set up to read in series or chronologically as one can if one wishes to start with sections that interest them the most. Also like the aforementioned classic, this book also provides considerable space devoted to describing the real world faced by both the outsiders and the insiders with respect to where their interests and incentives are most likely set. Understanding the viewpoints of both the insiders, whether corporate management or the directors, and the outsiders, whether control investors, the banker, the financier, the short-term traders, or that of the outside passive investor will help you along your way in understanding what may be happening in the market and why. Why? - because one needs to understand the view of the interested parties perspective and that one may temporarily have leverage over the other.

With that cautionary note, the reader can gain some great insights into the somewhat hidden world of how the bankruptcy process works. With the ample examples and historical perspective that the authors bring to the table, the reader will gain more understanding of what is going on versus what one may read in the daily headlines of the pre-filing, or the post-filing, of the bankruptcy proceedings.

All in this book provides one with some safeguards in regards to what to invest in and what to look out for while investigating distressed opportunities. "Distressed Investing" also still sticks to the Safe & Cheap philosophy advocated by both the authors and from the framework of Benjamin Graham.