The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Lasry: Selling a minority stake instead of an IPO was a mistake
“I actually think we made a mistake. Morgan Stanley's been a great partner. That wasn't the mistake. I think at the time, the decision was, do you sell a stake to a financial institution such as Morgan Stanley, or do you go public?”
Lasry: Avenue Capital is no longer comfortable investing in China
“Five years ago, we were comfortable investing in China. Today, we're not.”
Lasry: Russia seized four planes from Avenue Capital following Ukraine war sanctions
“We have an aviation fund that invests, and we own four planes. Those planes, at the time of the Ukraine war, were taking passengers from Turkey to Moscow. When sanctions came down, Moscow grounded those planes, and we found, all of a sudden, Four of our assets…”
Lasry: Avenue caps fund size at $1B to avoid relying on leverage
“Our niche is we try not to raise funds that are larger than a billion dollars. Because the larger we get, the more we're going to compete and need leverage to generate returns. The smaller you are, the more you can generate unlevered returns.”
Lasry: Public asset management firms gained massive advantage through liquid stock
“And that the firms that went public had a massive advantage, which was that they had Currency to buy others and to tie up employees by giving them stock. And also that currency was liquid. Whereas what we were doing was giving people partnership interests in a…”
Lasry: Avenue Capital returned half its AUM to investors in 2011
“We returned half the money, and we made this big decision to get back half the money because we thought there was just less and less distress, right?”
Lasry: European debt investments are overpaying for risk
“I think opportunities in Europe today are pretty large, just simply because you're getting overpaid for the risk.”
Lasry: We shut down a brokerage generating 80% of our income
“Sonia came up with the idea that we needed to close the brokerage firm and just focus on the asset management business. And I don't think I was fully bought in on that. It was actually generating, I think for Sonia and I, probably 80% of our income. And she wa…”
Lasry: Avenue Capital shifted from 80% public bonds to 80-90% private credit
“10 years ago, 80% of everything we did was public. We'd buy public bonds. Today, 80 to 90% of what we do is private. So it's all bilateral.”
Marc Lasry: Avenue Capital launched venture debt by hiring Hercules executives
“So we started a venture debt group. Because the folks who used to work at Hercules were leaving, and they came over, and we hired all three guys and raised a fund around that, and that fund's done great, mainly because the people we brought in are super talent…”