In this episode Geoff Castle, Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, chats with Stan Manoukian, founder of Independent Credit Research LLC.
Subtitle: The beautiful stories to be found in distressed credit.
In this episode Geoff Castle, Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, chats with Stan Manoukian, founder of Independent Credit Research LLC. Together they discuss Stan’s background, his experiences with distressed debt and the motivation that led him to start his own firm. Stan also discusses in depth the lessons he has learned throughout his career and how he applies them to distressed debt investing. Finally, Stan shares his perspectives on a variety of topics from credit cycles, as they relate to distressed credit investing and the opportunity with reorg equities.
Key Takeaways
| [01:18] | Stan’s origin story – “because there aren't a lot of Russian distress debt analysts on Wall Street”. |
| [04:23] | Stan’s first distressed debt experiences was the Enron crisis – what was his exposure to that event? |
| [08:22] | Why Stan decided to start his own firm at the height of the great financial crisis of 2009 and having Merrill Lynch and Bank of America as early clients. |
| [11:35] | The lessons Stan learned early in his career that he now applies to distressed debt investing, how the market is the best teacher and the beautiful story of buying bonds trading in the 60s, clipping the coupon and selling at par. |
| [17:24] | How distressed debt investing is at the intersection of equity and credit research and the mindset needed for distressed debt investing. |
| [20:13] | Why distressed credit investing has some barriers to entry and needs specialist knowledge and experience. Not everyone is familiar with the Bankruptcy Code. |
| [24:56] | Where does Stan get his ideas from? |
| [28:00] | Market cycles and the current state of credit cycles, as they relate to distressed credit investing. |
| [34:03] | Favorite sectors, and the problem and the opportunity with reorg equities. |
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