September 11, 2008
American Securities Opportunities Fund Closes $300 Million Distressed Debt Fund
American Securities Opportunities Fund (“ASOF”), an affiliate of American Securities, today announced the closing of a new fund with more than $300 million of committed capital.ASOF invests in public or private companies experiencing operating or financial stress as well as other challenges that may be solved with an injection of appropriate resources. Investing in these companies that are either in financial distress or trading at discounted levels, ASOF invests in securities throughout a company’s capital structure including bank debt, high-yield bonds, trade claims and equity securities.
The ASOF team includes nine professionals based in New York and is headed by Anthony Grillo, who rejoined American Securities in 2005 to establish ASOF and, before that, was senior managing director and founder of Evercore Partners’ Restructuring Advisory Group. Prior to Evercore, he was senior managing director and partner of Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, and senior managing director and partner of The Blackstone Group where he co-founded its Restructuring Advisory Group. Tony and his partners, John P. Fitzsimons and Lawrence A. First, each have more than 20 years experience in the distressed arena. John Fitzsimons joined ASOF in 2006 as a managing director and COO and was also previously with Evercore’s Restructuring Group. Larry First was formerly a managing director and co-portfolio manager in Merrill Lynch’s Principal Credit Group.
In commenting on the closing of the fund, Tony Grillo said, “With the re-pricing of risk and the tightening of the credit markets, the number of opportunities to make timely and significant investments have increased dramatically. The high amounts of leverage, weakened balance sheets and credit markets have resulted in increased defaults and restructurings, offering us the ability to make exceptional investments with prudent risk profiles.”
Michael Fisch, President & CEO of American Securities, said, “We foresaw a time when people would realize that the excessive loans that were made to some companies by banks and other lenders in the 2005-2007 period would need to be restructured as operating problems occurred and/or the growth plans were not realized. We wanted to be ready to invest in the opportunities this created and are delighted to congratulate Tony, John and Larry on the closing of this fund. We look forward to their success investing it.”
