Based on the incredibly popular “TED Talks” format, VALCON Talks features seasoned experts providing their views on several valuation topics.

What’s Wrong with Chapter 11?

Why doesn’t chapter 11 work the way Congress intended it to when they created it in 1978 and as amended? Why do businesses avoid it until it’s too late, and why do most cases end up being a 363 sale rather than a reorganization?

Do Private Equity and Hedge Funds Save or Kill Distressed Businesses?

Even as public markets rose worldwide over the last several years — the S&P 500 shot up by more than 20 percent, as did other major indices—investors continued to show interest and confidence in private markets. Private asset managers raised a record sum of nearly $750 billion globally in 2017, extending a cycle that began eight years ago. Fully 90 percent of fund investors said recently that private equity, the largest private asset class, will continue to outperform public markets and provide substantial (and critical) financing and liquidity to distressed businesses. Yet bankruptcy collapses like Toys R Us demonstrate that liquidation is often the best option for the controlling investors -- which may then be the public debt bondholders rather than the private equity funds who have already extracted value through fees, dividend recaps and other devices leaving what was an imperfect but functioning company on life support to be liquidated. What’s the verdict on PE and Hedge Fund investment in distressed M&A transactions: a life line or a death warrant?