Customer Reviews

Distressed Debt Analysis: Strategies for Speculative Investors

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many of us, perhaps you've owned some bonds that have fallen into junk status or worse, distress/bankruptcy. In most cases, did you throw up your arms either selling at a loss or confused by smallprint mail solicitations? Stephen Moyer is an absolute pro and de-mystifies what some may think of as a blackbox only understood by investment specialists, asset pirates, and/or bankruptcy lawyers.

Conversely, if you are a professional and seeking to augment your understanding, Moyer provides insightful commentary on areas like negotiation leverage points, key area to control, legal bounds of control, pre & post-bankruptcy valuation approaches, and comparisons to real deals done recently in the marketplace. Most of his examples are from 1998-2003, and he tries to use contemporary issues to highlight arguments. Unfortunately, you will not find the most recent Bankruptcy Code reforms which commenced Oct 17, 2005. For instance, he states on page 77 that management can "...extend the [bankruptcy] exclusivity period virtually indefinitely...", which today is essentially limited to 18 months. Although a shortcoming to the book, any professional investor would have access to materials to become up-to-date on the recent reforms.

Moyer's CV reads long: Stanford Law, Chicago MBA, CFA, CPA, and Drexel Lambert heritage. Obviously, he knows what he is talking about. His writing interests do seem to be lawyer-ly; for instance, he spends an inordinate amount of time explaining issues around confidentiality agreements and duties. But, I appreciated his clear and concise style and sentences. No arrogance in his style nor is he trying to sell his current firm.

Excellent book. Strongly recommend despite the price.

The premise of this book is really quite simple.

Identify securities (bonds, stocks or whatever) from companies that are in trouble. Buy these securities when other investors are ignoring or even selling them. Then when the company gets turned around, you can make a fortune. What you don't want to do is buy these securities only to see the companies go out of business so that your securities are now completely worthless.

As you might guess from the title, this book is about how to analyze distressed companies that offer this potential investment path. It covers virtually every aspect of finding such companies, determining if the proposed investment is feasible, explains the differences in the company going through one of the various bankruptcy procedures, the legal and financial due diligence issues, and more. The final result is a set of basic investment strategies and analytical techniques, complete with case studies and referrences to numerous real-world examples to emphasize important concepts and critical issues.

Along with the book is a companion web site that offers additional information, checklists, sample letters, and more.

This book is a complete introduction to this new and emerging field.

Steve offers a comprehensive yet pragmatic treatment of a multifaceted subject. Illustrative case examples that emphasize the complex interplay of market forces, financial analysis, economics, and judicial process that dictate success or failure in distressed investing.
Written as an integrated text book by a single author, Distressed Debt Analysis follows a single thought-thread on the subject, avoiding the disjointed "patchwork quilt" products typically produced by editors collecting essays from individual subject matter experts (aka Fabozzi and Altman).

Read this instead of other high yield/distressed books - this focuses on practical, ready to use things rather than wading through a statistical quagmire of default rates, transition tables etc. Maybe a bit light on fundamental valuation, but other than that, deservedly the best book on distressed investing.

This is the best book on distressed investments that I have read. As a distressed debt analyst at a hedge fund, I found Mr. Moyer's book to be relatively comprehensive yet extremely readable. An excellent primer on the topic. I recommend it highly to anyone starting out in the field.

Unlike many academic books, this is a practical analysis of distressed debt, the bankruptcy process, and all the related financial, accounting and valuation issues that arise in this context. It is well written and well organized.

Some other books on the topic go into significantly more detail in esoteric issues; however this book is a must for a grounded detailed understanding of the topic. I have recommended this book to a number of colleagues in the industry and all were equally appreciative.

This book has the perfect breadth and depth for anyone who wants an adequate understanding of the market of distressed debt and its drivers. The reader feels the author spills his years as a practitioner without holding back any essential information. Its usefulness makes it completely different from other books published on the subject.

I think it is a great reading for people interested in distressed, high yield investing as well as financial restructuring.
I am a novice to the area and read the book with a great interest and learned a lot from it. I enjoyed the style and the language of this book. It does a good job explaining financial concepts and legal issues with a simple and ubderestandable words. It stands out of other publications I've read about distress that are overloaded with legal and finance terms with confusing explanations. I particularly apreciate that, as practitioner with impressive experience, the author avoids going too far in academic theories and provides with very interesting insights in how thigs are done in real life. I am not an expert, so I can't judge about the depth of the book, but I think it provides with a pretty good breadth.

If you are looking at distressed assets (not just debt) of any kind, this is the only book you need.

All bases are covered, from legal proceedings, financial statement analysis, to market micro-structure.

This is not a suitable book for retail investors, unless the issue happens to be very large and liquid (e.g. Calpine debt in 12/'07). This text is directed primarily at institutional investors, so know this before you buy.

Other subjects are covered such as "loan to own", etc.

A winner.

This book is an excellent primer on the world of distressed investing and by default, restructuring. While some of the finance is basic, it provides a complete framework for understanding the additional moving parts involved with distressed investing while giving clear examples even a five year old could comprehend (well okay, maybe just someone with any basic corporate finance exposure).

The one thing that it lacks which I would like to see (maybe in a more advanced sequel), would be a section on actual case studies and more in-depth explanations on strategies. That said, the author's main purpose was to provide a primer on the subject which I think he did wonderfully.