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Lyon: Building a diversified portfolio of 20 distressed companies is impossible

David Lyon · David Lyon – Hybrid Capital Solutions for Private Assets (EP.471) · Nov 17, 2025 · at 31:35

David Lyon of Neuberger Berman critiques traditional distressed debt and turnaround strategies, arguing that turnaround operational edge cannot scale across a full portfolio.

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“I don't believe it's possible for any single person to assemble a reasonably diversified portfolio of 20 broken things. You can have an edge in one or two things where you think there's possibility to turn it around. You might know an operating executive or understand the model. Can you do that at scale? I don't think so.”

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