2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Finance with Negative Signs, 2004-01-23
Someone (perhaps it was I) has said that bankruptcy is corporate finance with negative signs. This has always been true but it is amazing how far mainstream finance has gone to try to resist the comparison. The resistance must be, must have been more cultural than economic, because it is axiomatic that anything is a bargain at the right price, and that there is no more or less money to be made in "distress investing" than in any other. Two generations ago, there seems to have been only one person in American that really understood this point - the late Max Heine, who made his grubstake by investing in out-of-favor railroad bonds in the Great Depression, and then riding the wave of prosperity that emerged in World War II. In the same vein, 40 years ago just about any bankruptcy judge would have looked on an "assigned claim" as some kind of monster.Times have changed. Now everybody's an arbitrageur. The "vulture investors" have their conferences, their social clubs, and for all I know, their own softball team.
Stuart C. Gilson"s "Corporate Restructuring" symbolizes the sea change from the old attitude to the new. It adds the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School to the notion that vulture investing is just another way of making money. As others have noted, this isn't a work of high theory - indeed it has a kind of slapdash, direct-off-the-photocopier feel that is remarkably common in business publications. For fancy theory, you look elsewhere - in law to the likes of Douglas Baird or Lucian Arye Bebchuk; in finance to the developing lore of "real options." But the case studies are an excellent device for getting a sense of the texture and possibilities of vulture investing. It can be read with profit alongside Hilary Rosenberg's "The Vulture Investors." Ambitious students who want the full theoretical framework will match it with David G. Luenberger's "Investment Science." But Gilson's work has merit on its own as one kind of introduction to this revolution in investment thinking.
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Only usefull for students, 2003-03-03
What a waiste of money.... The writer has not included any anlyses or real solutions to the cases that a provided. Unless you are a student in a class that use this book, this book gives you absolute nothing.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Good book but needs a companion text, 2003-02-18
This is a very good case book, complete with intricate case studies illustrating numerous aspects of challenges often faced in restructuring in bankruptcy. However, the book assumes a level of knowledge about M&A concepts that many readers may not have. Consequently, I would recommend using this book in conjunction with another excellent text by DePamphilis entitled Mergers and Acquisitions: Integrated Approach. There are two editions. The second edition is more complete and up to date. It also tackles some of the problems illustrated in this book.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Just a collection of old cases, 2003-01-30
This book is a complete waste of time. It is just a collection of case studies bundled together and resold. There is no analysis done. The cases are merely reprinted word for word from the original HBS cases. There are three short intros to the different sections, but once again nothing useful. Great marketing ploy, lousy book.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Corporate Restructuring: It's Not Just for Lawyers Anymore, 2002-12-05
You'd be surprised by how few business schools offer courses on bankruptcy and restructuring. I know that I was. I came to Wharton this year to teach "Advanced Corporate Finance" in the MBA program. In preliminary "due diligence," I discovered there were no finance electives on bankruptcy and restructuring. To bridge the gap, I decided to conclude my course with two modules, one on Corporate Restructuring and the other on Bankruptcy.
Material for both modules came straight from Gilson's book. Students relished the case studies. They fueled many of the most lively and engaging discussions we enjoyed all term. Students are worried about the economy. For the first time, many also sense career opportunities in the area of distressed debt. When I planned the course, I counted on both to spur interest in the modules.
What I didn't count on was how well Gilson's cases would frame virtually all other material that I covered. Key lessons resurfaced from all modules: Financial Analysis and Forecasting, Capital Structure Policy, Capital Budgeting, and Mergers and Acquisitions. In each case, revisiting the ideas in the context of bankruptcy and restructuring threw them into high relief. So much so that I was able to substitute restructuring cases for those I had intended as "comprehensive" case discussions.
As important for educators, Gilson's cases provide all necessary background information about how key legal and procedural aspects of the Bankruptcy Code influence managers' decisions. In Gilson's cases, the decisions featured are crucial to determining how to maximize value in distressed situations, as well as how to distribute it when all is said and done.
In the final analysis, aren't these *exactly* the issues that MBA courses in corporate finance should address? My students at Wharton this term sure thought so. In the spring, my two sections are also already full. I've been told the "buzz" is mostly due to Gilson's restructuring material. Hopefully, some value was created in the delivery. Nonetheless, I couldn't recommend any material more highly for anyone planning to teach a spring term corporate finance course.