Starting full-time in a restructuring group this summer and interested in the above groups - does anyone have updated information on returns, culture, and investments made by these groups? And how do they compare to the buyout groups at these funds in terms of exits, hours, etc.?
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Are you trying to do distressed leaning special situations or catch-all groups? I gave some data but to be honest there is alot out there so would take a look around the forum - the HF forum may have more data than the PE forum for this one.
Unless you are purely focused on New York, you are missing three of the more interesting / aggressive groups in my opinion which I will include at the end. There are a ton of other funds / groups that could be included as well that do privates in distressed (AG, Centerbridge, Bain distressed, OHA, the APO spinouts, Clearlake, GSAM, Blackrock opportunistic, the Minnesota funds, + 30 hedge funds). If you are trying to do distressed turnaround private equity should be looking at KPS and SVP Global for larger check sizes.
Lifestyle can be tough at alot of distressed seats, due to the nature of the work. Exit opps are going to be different than buyout teams. They are largely going to be focused on credit / distressed / event-driven hedge funds rather than Tiger cubs. Think Elliott / Silverpoint / Baupost (which are arguably not the most desirable seats) rather than Tiger / D1 / insert everyone's favorite tech firm.
- Oaktree Special Sits -> Good seat, but isn't the flagship fund at the firm. Focused more on middle market, distressed for control situations, historically good returns though buoyed by market beta bets.
- Tac Opps -> Fund size dropped because BX has cannibalized its Tac Opps business with new business launches. Does not really play in distressed (there are GSO funds (Credit Opps) + that BAAM fund that do that to an extent). Tac Opps has had some sick exits, but this was also when they used to have growth in their mandate before Korngold came over and launched BX Growth.
- Apollo Hybrid Value: This is an interesting seat that has done pretty well with mezzanine type investments on an IRR basis through COVID. I'm not sure what the interplay is between John Zito's fund / the Accord vehicles and the mainline buyout flagship which also does some distressed for control, I'm not sure of what seat is best / how allocation works. My understanding is that Hybrid Value is more of a mezzanine and structured equity fund, that is less focused on distressed opportunities but could be wrong there. They did not hit their hard cap on their latest vehicle.
- Brookfield Special Investments: New group -> much less brand name than the others but have a decent amount of money. You are largely going to be looking at hard asset type investments due to Brookfield's legacy / investment focus throughout the firm. Less focused on distressed and more on catch-all type investments.
- KKR Special Situations: Franchise kind of relaunched during COVID after having some pretty lack-luster performance and has done well thus far. Don't know a ton here to be honest.
- Sixth Street since they were mentioned above: They have two groups -> opportunities and fundamental strategies. Opportunities does more distressed for control or situations where Sixth Street will have significant influence while fundamental strategies focuses on large cap distressed.
Three more interesting vehicles but all LA based:
- Ares Special Opportunities: Absolutely crushing it. Ares picked up the heir apparent at Oaktree (Scott Graves) and loaded up with a couple of other hungry seniors who are very aggressive and are doing extremely well with their vehicle. They will hit their hard cap on their latest vehicle which will be larger than any of the latest vehicles of the aforementioned firms.
- Oaktree Opportunities: Flagship distressed / special situations vehicle at Oaktree. More focused on liquid situations and less for control. Leanly staffed and your PM is Bruce Karsh. I'd rather have this seat than one on their special situations team.
- PIMCO: I honestly wouldn't have included them here until this Incora transaction / another couple unannounced situations came across my desk. They picked up the former head of SS at KKR and a couple of guys from Elliott / other funds. Basically they are using their massive size to crush other players and have insane market data due to being involved in basically every credit.