Distressed Debt Analysis: Strategies for Speculative Investors

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.

I'm really surprised that DDA only has 29 reviews - I would have thought by now the word would be out on this book. For those in the credit (including performing credit trading at or above par), distressed or restructuring arenas, this book is the must read bible. Moyer breaks down concepts the way the most astute market participants view them and lays out the building blocks for valuing credit and distressed investments. I would recommend this as a top of the list read for anyone in the aforementioned professions. I've worked in a combination of the three for close to 10 years and find myself regularly coming back to concepts I learned during my first pass through DDA from when I first started.

Lets get the bad bits out of the way first, for such an expensive book the binding is terrible, it is almost impossible to open the book fully without the pages starting to come out. The cover of the book is full of spelling mistakes the back cover has words such as docades instead of decades! Now for the good bit, once you have got past the cover the book is fine, very knowledgeable and although some of the rules and regulations have been amended since it was published the book is still very very useful.

Good read; I had no familiarity whatsoever with credit investing or the restructuring process prior to reading this book other than an understanding of basic corporate finance and following the credit markets via leveragedloan.com. I've been told this book is a great primer for understanding distressed credit investing and restructuring and would agree based on my limited knowledge; I would say that it has helped me understand (at a high level) the processes involved in distressed debt along with some of the various financial, legal, and even tax-related nuances involved. I recently purchased The Art of Distressed M&A by Nesvold, so I will use this book as a comparison and will try to remember to update this review if I see fit!

This has been the best distressed investing book I have read thus far. The depth of the materials and examples can familiarize a newly minted distressed investing professional or student interested in the subject in almost all facets of the distressed investment life-cycle. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent reference for the informed and uninformed

Really loved this book. Full of practical and applicable knowledge not found in most investment books.

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.

Muy bueno livro que combina conceptos de finanzas, estrategia y derecho

It is a good book for the basics.

The book is a great introduction into the (US) chapter 7 and chapter 11 process and shows how investors can benefit from such situations. Since this book covers the very basics, you should not worry too much about the US jurisdictional focus. Having never dealt with bankruptcy before, this book was a great primer for me to get up to speed - providing both the legal background and the quantitative basics. The writing style also makes it a pleasant read which is an achievement given the technical content. Highly recommended and worth the money.

The book is thoroughly good but doesn’t live up to its hype. Like some other books of its kind it doesn’t provide any real-life examples or case studies that would go a long way in providing some structure and context to situations and descriptions outlined in Moyer’s book. Don’t get me wrong though; it’s a good book but just not a great book. As mostly a theoretical book on distressed debt investing, this book accomplishes less than the one written by Subhrendu Chatterji and Paul Hedges called “Loan Workouts and Debt for Equity Swaps” which is far more detailed and thorough in its description of the pros and cons in the use of a wide range of securities in loan-to-own transaction. At some £95 this is also an expensive book taking into consideration its shortcomings. A revised edition with some case studies would probably turn it into a “must read”.