What's going on with Highland Capital?
I know they've always had a bit of a reputation, but they seemed fairly legit ($20Bn+ in AUM, fairly high profile positions in distressed debt). Recently there's been a ton of news about them (lawsuits? management co filing bankruptcy? mass defections?) which would seem to contradict that notion. Anyone with the inside scoop or just juicy stories/rumors about them?
Can confirm some of the rumors. Historically very strong name ($40bn+ at its peak) in credit that pioneered the CLO market but then blew up in the recession and never really recovered.
They’ve tried to pivot partially towards being a private equity shop (mostly healthcare), but the equity fund never raised much capital (
bump
They committed BK fraud. Those guys are toast especially on the CRE side. They changed their name to NexPoint thinking nobody would put 2 & 2 together. They mainly do CRE now. NexPoint has an awful reputation in CRE & an even worse one in Dallas. The reputation of the CRE guys is they are unemployable and have no ethics. The clowns who run the CRE platform have told so many lies around Dallas about how they are separate from the Highland Capital BK that I think they have started to believe it.
When we approached them about the separation issue and how they are not separate and a 1L could understand that. They then emphasized they were totally separate entities which turned out to be a giant lie. When we confronted them about it they got aggressive & ran away with their tail between their legs like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. They said “we will never do business with you guys again how dare you question our integrity”. We didn’t really care and told them to enjoy prison and to not drop the soap. Hopefully they like eating cockmeat sandwich’s for breakfast, lunch, & dinner.
The next day an article in the DMN came out about fraud & misappropriation of assets. My group & most our firm has blackballed them. We will not accept any offer they submit period it could be 300% of asking price.
They got one of our senior brokers in a ton of trouble and almost fired for leaking information on a building that was owned by the Highland BK trust. They made a bid on the building through NexPoint that was the exact asking price. I remember walking in hearing our director getting berated by senior individuals literally asking him if he wants to work here or go to Nexpoint and end up in prison were he will get fucked in the ass everyday because if so there is the fucking door. Guy was balling his eyes out about how he has kids and a wife and he needs this job.
No way they would have known this information without our broker leaking it and it was a deal not even in our group. This was the second time this broker leaked information to them the first was an office building they low balled an offer on & he admitted to leaking it.
Shocked he was not given walking papers. I would not have been as generous because he opened us up to some serious legal liability. Guy is still in deep shit around our office and lost all political capital in our firm. Pretty much relegated to the corner and we quit inviting him to work happy hours to this day because he might leak information again.
A client of mine interviewed an individual last month who currently is employed there on the CRE side. I guess he reiterated the legal issues, constant unethical behavior in the CRE group, and said all his coworkers are subpar and the firm is run by poor performing lawyers who are all unemployable anywhere else. Said the firm will be out of business in 5 years but wouldn’t be shocked if it was tomorrow.
Wow that's some tea
If the dbag you met is the same person I am thinking of then the assumption is correct that individual is a dbag. He is on a Grant Cardone dbag level. Same dbag whipped out a Louie Vutton wallet. No self respecting man uses a Louie Vutton wallet period. It just confirmed the tackiness and dbag level. The verbal interaction I had came off unintelligent and I was less than impressed.
This same dbag’s exwife went around HPV during their divorce and spread their personal business. We will just say he needs to lay off the grandpas old cough medicine and should not have been dipping his is pen in other women’s ink especially stripper ink. Guess he spent too much time getting private “dances” in the back room of titty bars hear he was spending some cash for beejays when he was telling his exwife he was “working late”. She gave us a lot of cringy details especially about their personal life that made me embarrassed just to hear it. Another reason I would never do business with them I know too much about dbags shitty personal life and all the skeezy shit he does.
I have never seen dirty laundry aired out like this on WSO ... OP i salute you
Holy crap I actually interviewed there for role not that long ago. The pay fucking sucked balls I was under the impression they paid well but damn I would make more working at La Bare. I brought up some of the issues in the news in my interview and was given a skeezy answers.
During one of my last interviews the interviewer told me not to take the job and asked me if my current firm is hiring hahaha huge red flag. He said the place is a disaster internally and all his coworkers are worthless.
What role and what did they offer?
The lowest performer in my peer group went to NexPoint. If NexPoint hired this individual you know the talent is subpar this guy was one notch below bottom feeder at our firm. He reached out a few weeks ago inquiring coming back stated the obvious firms in peril along with lack of professionalism that exudes through the firms culture. He’s never seen a firm that lacks individual accountability and accepts mediocrity daily and everyone is paranoid.
Back in 2011 they were trying to poach attorneys under the Highland brand.
Sounds about right. Whole firm was filled with nothing but low performers. The whole firm is a sh1t show and everyone was too afraid to say it but everyone knows it. The amount of denial I saw about the HCM bankruptcy was insane.
The whole firm was so paranoid about stating the obvious or speaking out about dumb ideas and negative press. Nobody wants to say the king has no clothes and lives in a house of cards
Former NP wholesaler. Firm is the run by morons and mismanaged at all levels. Sales desk management is worthless. Culture is the most toxic I have ever seen. We got kicked out of the Crescent and moved to City Place only to move back to the Crescent.
Sorry, RE n00b here, what's NP wholesaler?
Not sure if you were around with some of my running crew who worked there, but everything you laid out is almost word for word what they told me about the firm. The famous quote "dodged a bullet" comes to mind looking back at even thinking of applying to work there.
GD! Just googled this! These guys have told every broker in town so much BS over the past three years but the tides are shifting. I have a close contact at NP who told me bonuses are delayed this year and pretty low supposedly everyone is furious especially after seeing what others where making in court docs. He doubts they have the money to pay bonuses. Told me the whole real estate group is furious about the state of the company and knows they are screwed but they can’t leave because they have stock due to them.
Anyone know what the deal is with Mark Okada's new firm, Sycamore Tree Capital Partners? I see they've raised a CLO but wonder if have been successful raising $ otherwise / attracting talent
x
Looks like they're hiring a credit analyst
Have met a few folks from there and I got the pitch but Okada seems like the angel compared to the devil that was Dondero. The folks I met at Sycamore were competent and they have raised a good amount of $ and have expanded beyond structured credit into direct lending and the public side. They have a big team.
Dondero created such a toxic environment at HCM. They had computer monitoring software that basically timed the amount of work you were doing each week.
That is 100% false. Okada knew the culture was awful but he allowed for it to happen and even antagonized certain employees. He’s 5’5 and talking shit to guys he knows can’t do anything because they would be fired. That’s the definition of a b1tch.
He was CIO and had no clue about Donderos bad culture…nope he knew he chose to look the other way and steal the bonus pool. Okada is a giant sweaty turd and a phony.
We killed a deal from them after reading this post
Lol ... was it an investment sales deal?
Are you referencing the 200-acres life sciences redevelopment?
Based on this thread I think it’s time to research the potential of a short position on the publicly listed stuff.
Holy shit 😂🤣 This is the quality material I come here for!
What an idiot and how short sighted! This is why the desk hates raising money for that tool! Investors are not dumb when they google his name and see he is not credible and lacks ethics they will laugh in a wholesalers face. He will freak out because nobody can raise anything because they do sketchy crap like this. Is doing the right thing that hard? Nope but some people lack the ability to do what’s right and I’m sure they will blame everyone but themselves when they get caught doing sketchy crap.
Thanks for sharing. Impeaching yourself is no bueno. Why would anyone impeach themselves for Dondero? It’s not only a bad look but if discrediting your integrity.
My analysis of the situation pure speculation based on the attached link & other legal filings:
They had some apartments in an entity SE Multifamily. Highland put up $49k for 46% with the remaining going to HCRE dba NexPoint & BH Management. Highland is deemed liable for $500MM+ in loans via a lender.
Dondero admits he signs high risk documents and relys on the process & people & did not read any of the documents. The process and people failed him otherwise they would not be in this predicament.
Documents reviewed by multiple internal and external parties & signatory.
Under Delaware law, ordinarily, "parties who sign contracts and other binding documents are bound by the obligations that those documents contain
Tax filings confirm the true intent of distributions from 18 - 20
declares it was a “mistake”. No way or they are bad at their job. Costing the institution tens of millions of dollars is no bueno. If not whoever screwed that up should be fired. Poor legal work. Per docs it was reviewed by external & internal council.
Analysis poor internal/external procedures & controls. Pink slips are due & clawback of equity awarded from other deals. A pretty big oversight if it is a “mutual mistake”. If not a true “mistake” the attorney who came up with the “mutual mistake” strategy should be given a pink slip…..
Impeaching for yourself for Dondero is a slippery slope it’s like making a deal with a satan it’s not a matter of if you will screwed just a matter of when. Ask Josh Terry but he laughed all the way to the bank and bent Dondero over.
https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2019/02/11/acis-highland-capita…
Why would any self respecting lawyer or law firm would work with Dondero? The man has shown for three decades to be morally reprehensible & he sued his attorneys for malpractice because he lost his bankruptcy case.
https://texaslawbook.net/litigation-roundup-opioids-psilocybin-alleged-…
Found this while researching NexPoint. Looks like they have known for years what they were doing would get them in deep doo doo. I cannot upload a screen shot of the legal document but it’s all a matter of public record. Here is the grim piece.
If Highland does not settle...
AND UBS WINS:
1. AND
Highland loses all assets in HFP/CDO Fund (HFP assets include $32m DAF Note Payable) (see Slide 9 and Appendix 1);
Exhibit paints a bad picture. Looks like they did not want to pay UBS. Doing more research on LinkedIn it looks like all the attorneys on these emails are still employed via Skyview the shared services providers for NexPoint. Looks like it’s just the former back office employees of Highland. You would think it Dondero had no clue any of this was going on he would terminate all the attorneys who caused these issue immediately but he still employees them. Based on the facts that they have not been terminated we can assume a lot. I am bearish on their stocks.
Nexpoint those guys are done time to close up shop & throw the keys to UBS & beg for forgiveness for their sins. Their REITs suck so do their mutual funds there is a reason they trade at a drastic discount to NAV. Their crappy Houston multi portfolio they tried to peddle around this past year was the biggest turd I have ever seen it showed what crappy investors they are and made them a laughing stock in the multi space. Their employees are giant tools.
Word on the street is Key Bank their lender is fed up with their crap and think they are screwed and only keep them around for fees and so they can take over their properties & collateral pledged. “We don’t even like those guys they are total dicks and pain in the ass. We all know how the story is going to end for them. Do not pass go do not collect $200 if you catch my drift pal.”
this whole thread is hilarious, these fellas seem to have the entire Dallas RE scene all riled up.
At sit amet ea inventore veritatis est. Quo animi veniam quis. Culpa molestiae quis quod rerum. Sunt iste non dolores rerum odit dolorem molestiae. Quia magni ducimus velit provident et qui non rerum. Distinctio et totam ullam dolor id voluptate quidem. In iusto laboriosam corporis sequi sint iure rerum.
Asperiores tenetur atque id laudantium. A sunt ea aut iusto quo velit.
Et cum saepe rerum cupiditate voluptatum possimus. Omnis est fugiat voluptatem provident occaecati ut omnis. Doloremque molestiae est soluta ratione blanditiis. Velit atque maxime et sunt voluptatum expedita iure consequatur. Illo perspiciatis et omnis rem.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Consequatur repellat quod occaecati aliquam voluptate magni. Fuga dignissimos temporibus voluptatibus nesciunt dolor aut velit. In eaque et et provident aperiam error.