Avenues of Opportunity

Marc is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global investment firm focused on distressed debt that he founded in 1995 with his sister, Sonia Gardner. Almost thirty years later, Avenue manages $12 billion in assets.

Our conversation covers Marc’s background and path to investing, the early days in distressed, inflection points in Avenue’s history, including the decision to return half the capital in 2011 and to sell a minority stake to Morgan Stanley, and owning a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise over the last decade. We then turn to the investment environment, attractiveness across geographic regions, creating a competitive advantage, and opportunities in distressed lending, sports, and Asia. We close discussing Marc’s involvement in politics and lessons from chess and poker.

Show Notes
04:51    Mark’s background
08:21    Launching Avenue Capital
09:08    Inflection points
16:29    GFC
21:14    Selling a stake in Avenue
25:05    Important milestones
29:57    Buying and Exiting the Milwaukee Bucks
32:42    Avenue’s path forward
37:34    Deploying capital in different geographies
41:11    Strengths and weaknesses of private credit
42:06    Finding opportunities
48:15    Valuations in sports investing
50:49    Navigating investing in Asia
51:28    Involvement in US politics
52:09    Chess, poker, and investing
53:10    Closing questions