A global distressed Private Equity Firm

Here is good intro of the “Distressed Investing” strategy from a Business School

David Matlin was equally candid as he described MatlinPatterson's investment process and the state of the industry and patiently fielded questions from the 100 plus students in the room. His fund looks for good companies undergoing a crisis in an out-of-favor, but lasting, industry. The fund will buy into any part of the liability structure of a distressed company that will give them control, and often take the company out of bankruptcy proceedings with a reorganization plan. The group has mastered this strategy, as evidenced by its growing number of imitators, along with the number and magnitude of its own successful turnarounds.

Source Wharton Business School article

Here is the Vulture perspective --- here discussing globally significant WorldCom Bankruptcy

Vultures at the Gate

Nearly a year after the world’s biggest IP network operator and America’s second-largest long distance carrier filed for Chapter 11, an upstart hedge fund is diving in on the ailing company. Will MatlinPatterson save WorldCom or tear it apart?

MatlinPatterson is an “active” vulture fund because they attempt to control the bankruptcy process. They do this by assembling a “blocking position”—more than a third of the debt in one class.

Here is an article where Maitlin is looking at their own bottom line

However, external pressures are pushing it to abandon its private status. The family sold a significant minority interest in 2001 to a private equity investor, Matlin Patterson, a vulture fund founded by David Matlin. Now Mr Matlin wants to cash in on his investment.

Here is a mining example of the global reach this company

Good story line here giving some of the history of Maitlin

David Matlin has been averaging 40% returns annually since he started running Credit Suisse First Boston's vulture fund in 1994. OK, these returns aren't publicly available, but Matlin says his auditor Ernst & Young vouches for them. And few in the distressed-investing community are surprised by them. "I haven't seen actual returns, but that all fits together," says Thomas Cole, managing director at Deutsche Bank, which trades with distressed-debt scavengers.

Now Matlin, 41, is striking out on his own, moving his $2.2 billion Matlin Patterson Global Opportunities Fund from under CSFB's mantle (the brokerage is providing 11% of his assets under management). As an independent operator, he will continue to cater only to institutions