U.S. Strategy

Overview

The Avenue U.S. strategy seeks to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns primarily by focusing on specialty lending, dislocated liquid credit, stressed/distressed debt and undervalued equity of U.S. assets and companies. The strategy includes sector-specific sub-strategies, such as those that focus on mid and end-of-life aviation opportunities and energy credit and power assets. In addition, the strategy may invest in real estate debt.

The strategy and its sub-strategies generally focus on:

  • Companies that are undervalued because of discrete extraordinary events
  • Companies experiencing operational and financial difficulties in which Avenue anticipates a turnaround
  • Deep value in the equity of power assets supporting the energy transition
  • Small balance, real estate-backed performing and non-performing loans and tax liens
  • Mid-life and end-of-life aviation hard assets, dislocated securities and aviation bankruptcies
  • Senior secured, first lien performing bank loans of leveraged, sponsor-backed, non-investment grade companies

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek “good companies with bad balance sheets” — firms or assets with sustainable businesses and positive cash flow but whose financial situation is stressed or distressed, or where complex financing is required.  Avenue’s experienced investment team provides highly-negotiated capital solutions with a focus on downside protection. The investment team conducts extensive research and analysis using Avenue’s top-down/bottom-up approach to find undervalued opportunities. The Avenue U.S. Strategy leverages its extensive network, including its captive external loan originating/servicing platform and wholly-owned power management and operating platform to further enhance its investment process.

The strategy generally targets:

  • Opportunistic credit
  • Special situations
  • Senior secured loans
  • Stressed high yield debt
  • Event-driven situations
  • Restructured and post-reorganization equities
  • Equity in undervalued power assets

Senior Management Team

The Avenue U.S. strategy is managed by a team of senior investment professionals who have spent virtually their entire careers in the public and private credit and special situations equity markets. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior investment team. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Shawn Foley

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue U.S. Strategy

Craig Hart

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue U.S. Strategy

Matthew Kimble

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue U.S. Strategy

Randal Klein

Senior Portfolio Manager - Global Funds

William Maier

Senior Portfolio Manager - Performing Loans

Patric Lager

Portfolio Manager - Performing Loans

Europe Strategy

Overview

The Avenue Europe strategy is focused primarily on providing senior secured, asset-backed loans to borrowers in Northern Europe.  Our unique approach to origination provides us with exclusive access to lending opportunities in market niches where there is limited competition.  We seek to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining a strong focus on downside protection and capital preservation.  Avenue has a dedicated European presence since 2004 and has deployed over $26 billion in European credit. 

The strategy generally focuses on:

  • Senior secured, floating rate, bilateral loans
  • Asset-rich borrowers with high-quality collateral, including real estate and infrastructure assets
  • Small and middle-market loans
  • Sponsor and non-sponsor-backed borrowers

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek high-quality, asset-rich borrowers who are unable to access traditional bank financing. The team leverages Avenue’s origination platforms and long-standing presence in Europe to generate a large volume of recurring lending opportunities in market niches, which are generally less-competitive and have high barriers to entry. The investment team conducts extensive research and analysis to identify attractive investment opportunities across a broad spectrum of loan types, collateral and geographies. The strategy focuses on creditor-friendly jurisdictions in Northern Europe such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Nordic and Benelux countries. 

The strategy generally seeks to:

  • Generate attractive risk-adjusted returns with a high degree of downside protection
  • Target high-quality, asset-rich borrowers with limited access to traditional sources of debt finance
  • Lend in market niches where barriers to entry are high
  • Flexibly adjust loan structures, loan sizes, collateral types, credit metrics, sector and country exposures depending on market conditions
  • Focus on Northern European countries where creditor rights are strongest

In pursuing this approach, the strategy seeks to produce consistent returns, carefully evaluate risk/return and preserve capital.

Senior Management Team

The Avenue Europe strategy is managed by a team of senior investment professionals who have spent virtually their entire careers in the credit markets. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior investment team. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Jon Ford

Senior Portfolio Manager and Co-Head of Europe Strategy - Avenue Europe Strategy

Padraig Moore

Senior Portfolio Manager and Co-Head of Europe Strategy - Avenue Europe Strategy

Asia Strategy

Overview

The Avenue Asia strategy focuses on opportunistic credit and special situations opportunities in Asia Pacific with a particular focus on developed (Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan) and developing (India, China and Southeast Asia) markets. The strategy seeks attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing primarily in the senior secured debt of Asian companies with significant collateral. Avenue believes it has one of the largest local platforms in Asia with four offices and a dedicated team that has significant experience investing in the region and across multiple economic cycles. The strategy combines local insight and regional underwriting to effectively originate, diligence, execute and actively monitor investment opportunities.

The strategy generally focuses on:

  • Companies experiencing operational and financial difficulties in which Avenue anticipates a turnaround
  • Companies that are undervalued or require financing solutions because of discrete extraordinary events or economic conditions
  • Companies in industries that are in turmoil or where there are non-economic sellers of securities
  • Companies that are undergoing a restructuring, reorganization or bankruptcy

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek proprietary opportunistic and special situations investments by: 1) purchasing assets from non-economic sellers at attractive prices, 2) providing flexible special situation financings to companies with attractive cash flows and collateral but where traditional capital is unavailable, and 3) taking advantage of dislocations in Asia’s traded credit markets. The team studies each potential target market to develop significant expertise prior to investing a substantial amount of capital in that market. The team also leverages its extensive network of local investment, legal and accounting professionals to augment its investment process.  

The Avenue Asia strategy seeks to be opportunistic across the Asia Pacific region and generally targets:

  • Direct and specialty lending investments
  • Special situations investments
  • Opportunistic traded credit investments (e.g., liquid credit instruments that trade with a CUSIP or ISIN)

Senior Management Team

The Avenue Asia strategy is managed by a team of senior professionals who have spent virtually their entire careers in the debt and securities markets. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior management team, all of whom are local professionals and have worked extensively throughout Asia. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Anil Gorthy

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue Asia Strategy

Sports Strategy

Overview

The Avenue Sports strategy seeks to make debt, preferred equity and common equity investments in sports leagues, teams and sports-related adjacent businesses predominantly in the United States and Europe. The strategy will look to provide capital solutions for owner and minority investor liquidity, acquisition financing and growth capital as well as target special situations.

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted returns by providing creative liquidity solutions to a wide variety of sports teams and owners.  In our common equity investments, the strategy seeks to acquire control stakes or, where control stakes are not possible, control-like rights.  In our debt and preferred equity investments, the strategy seeks to partner with control-owners to leverage our experience in sports ownership and our deep network across the sport ecosystem to further drive growth and value. 

The strategy focuses on:

  • Capital solutions to teams in established sports leagues
  • Women’s sports opportunities across both established and emerging leagues
  • Minority stake acquisitions in established sports leagues
  • Growth capital to emerging sports teams and leagues with significant growth potential
  • Providing preferred equity and debt solutions at low LTVs

Athlete Team

Avenue's exclusive athlete team provides proprietary sourcing and unique insights to some of the most influential sports markets. The team's deep relationships across the industry help drive opportunities within the global sports ecosystem.

The team includes: Stephen Curry, Lauren Holiday, Harry Kane, Candace Parker, Michael Strahan and Lindsey Vonn.

Senior Management Team

The Avenue Sports strategy is managed by an experienced team of senior investment professionals who have spent their careers in the private equity and credit markets. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior investment team. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Jon Greenbaum

Senior Managing Director - Avenue Sports Strategy

Todd Marcy

Senior Managing Director - Avenue Sports Strategy

Sustainable Solutions Strategy

Overview

The Avenue Sustainable Solutions strategy seeks credit-oriented investments primarily in private, middle-market companies and related projects that may advance select social and environmental impact themes while generating attractive risk-adjusted returns and current income.

The strategy generally focuses on:

  • Providing opportunistic private credit and bespoke financing solutions
  • Growing, small to medium size companies with quality assets and predictable cash flows
  • Companies and projects in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek to deliver attractive current income and total returns while advancing the core mission of contributing to a more sustainable, resilient and secure society. Investments are expected to be made primarily in investment opportunities within our areas of focus, which may include (i) sustainable infrastructure, (ii) resource efficiency, (iii) agriculture and water resources, (iv) climate change mitigation, (v) clean energy, and (vi) safety and security.

The strategy generally targets:

  • Private Credit Opportunities
  • Senior Secured Lending
  • Second Lien Debt
  • Mezzanine Debt
  • Private Equity and Warrants

Senior Management Team

The Avenue Sustainable Solutions strategy is managed by a team of senior investment professionals who have spent their careers in the debt and securities markets. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior investment team. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

John Larkin

Head of Impact Investments and Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue Sustainable Solutions Strategy

Sean Coleman

Senior Portfolio Manager – Avenue Sustainable Solutions Strategy

Venture Debt Strategy

Overview

The Avenue Venture Debt strategy seeks to provide creative financing solutions to high-growth, venture capital-backed technology and life science companies. The strategy will generally focus on companies within the underserved segment of the market created by the widening financing gap between commercial banks and larger debt funds.

The strategy generally focuses on:

  • Companies seeking growth capital to supplement equity funding
  • Companies seeking dry powder to finance acquisitions, specific assets or working capital
  • Companies seeking liquidity to strengthen balance sheet while minimizing shareholder dilution

Approach

Avenue’s experienced investment professionals seek to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns through interest income while offering the potential to realize gains from warrants and small equity positions.  These companies are generally cash flow negative, yet offer significant enterprise value coverage for our debt investment.

The strategy generally targets:

  • Growing companies with healthy business fundamentals and differentiated intellectual property
  • Private and publicly traded companies
  • Term loans repaid over a period of 24 to 48 months
  • Initial investment sizes ranging from $3 million to $30 million

Senior Management Team

The Avenue Venture Debt strategy is managed by an experienced team of senior investment professionals who have spent their careers in the venture debt market. In addition, numerous investment professionals support the senior investment team. The senior management team includes:

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Sonia Gardner

President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Dan Holman

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue Venture Debt Strategy

Chad Norman

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue Venture Debt Strategy

Tony Pandjiris

Senior Portfolio Manager - Avenue Venture Debt Strategy