The Vulture Investors, Revised and Updated Hardcover by Hilary Rosenberg
The Vulture Investors – Description
“What kinds of investors actually choose to make their living by seeking out troubled companies and becoming mired in the complexities and contentiousness of a bankruptcy or out-of-court workout?” – Hilary Rosenberg (from The Vulture Investors)
Welcome to the big-time, big-stress-and big-profit-world of vulture investing. From the eleventh-hour save of Donald Trump’s casinos, to the tempestuous history of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, to the rocky restructuring of the massive Revco discount drugstore chain, Hilary Rosenberg takes us on a fast-moving journey through some of the major bankruptcies of the 1980s and 1990s-and brings to life the infamous, talented arbiters at the heart of their recovery. Meet the so-called “vulture investors” who cast their sights on distressed concerns, buy out debt, and skillfully forge their way to rich returns. Quietly upstaging the flashier corporate tycoons and raiders of the previous decade, men like Leon Black, Ronald LaBow, Sam Zell, Talton Embry, and Martin Whitman have helped to make a more efficient market in this obscure sector of investment, and their success may even inspire the quickly evolving business cultures of Asia and Latin America.
The vulture investors made their way to the forefront of American business during the troubled period when declaring bankruptcy became commonplace among debt-heavy companies. Buying out debt and seeing through the rehabilitation of companies as well-known as Sunbeam and Bloomingdale’s, these unique players have changed the face of the distressed securities market. In her own animated, absorbing, and original style, Hilary Rosenberg creates thoroughly researched reenactments of the vultures’ greatest exploits to offer an intriguing examination of their methods and their madness-and reveals the important role of these controversial characters in aiding worldwide economic recovery.
Praise for The Vulture Investors
“A lively account of the hardy band of investors who look for-and find-gold in capitalism’s junk pile. Rosenberg not only tells their stories with captivating relish but weighs the overall economic impact of their exploits. The Vulture Investors is a valuable introduction to 1990s-style deal-making.” – Chris Welles, Senior Editor, Business Week
“In a tour de force of punchy business writing, Rosenberg dissects a little-known but increasingly common high-stakes financial game: preying on companies in distress. . . . The author relates these intricate, suspenseful narratives in a clear, lively style that always instructs and often amuses.” – Publishers Weekly
“Reads like a good suspense novel.” – Library Journal
The Vulture Investors – Review
From Publishers Weekly
In a tour de force of punchy business writing, Institutional Investor senior editor Rosenberg dissects a little-known but increasingly common high-stakes financial game: preying on companies in distress. Operating in a $400 billion “debt market,” financiers like Paul Kazarian and Marty Whitman snap up an ailing firm’s bonds and bank loans at a discount, then participate in the ensuing bankruptcy or other reorganization process, which usually results in their holdings substantially increasing in value. Case histories illuminate the investors’ methods, introduce the field’s key players and give blow-by-blow accounts of major corporate upheavals at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, Coleco Toys, New Hampshire’s Seabrook atomic power plant, Donald Trump’s casinos and Allegheny International. The author relates these intricate, suspenseful narratives in a clear, lively style that always instructs and often amuses.
From Library Journal
At last, a book on bankruptcy that explains basic concepts before beginning the broader discussion of deals and dealmakers. The author anticipated all the questions this reviewer had and answered them where they were raised. Rosenberg has written about an arcane area of finance, and the book reads like a good suspense novel. The “winners” of the subtitle are the investors themselves, the “losers” the shareholders (and usually management) of the original company and, more often than not, the American taxpayer. Recommended for academic and public libraries holding James B. Stewart’s Den of Thieves ( LJ 10/1/91) and for readers of Stewart’s book, as a glimpse into the aftermath of poor management decisions or of gorging at the financial trough. – Alex Hartmann, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa
The Vulture Investors, Revised and Updated Hardcover by Hilary Rosenberg
