Hedge Fund - Canyon Capital Advisors

Canyon Capital Advisors is an alternative asset management company that looks to earn risk-adjusted returns that outpace debt and equity market indices, with significantly lower volatility. The Los-Angeles firm was co-founded in 1990 by Joshua S. Friedman and Mitchell R. Julis. It has offices in New York and London as well. Canyon Capital has been a registered investment advisor since 1994.

Co-founder Joshua S. Friedman was Director of Capital Markets for High Yield and Private Placements at Drexel Burnham Lambert prior to forming Canyon Capital. The exceptionally well-rounded Joshua S. Friedman also spent some years in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department of Goldman Sachs in New York after receiving his JD and MBA from Harvard. He has an MA in Politics and Economics from Oxford and a BA in Physics from Harvard as well. Mitchell R. Julis, who co-founded Canyon Capital with Joshua S. Friedman is equally as distinguished. He too has a JD and MBA from Harvard. He also has an undergrad degree from Princeton. Mitchell R. Julis led a group of professionals responsible for a portfolio of distressed and special situation securities at Drexel Burnham Lambert before starting Canyon Capital with Friedman. Before that, Mitchell R. Julis was a bankruptcy and creditors' rights attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. He has also authored a number of scholarly articles on the subject of bankruptcy and distressed credit investing.

Canyon Capital Advisors has around $19 billion in AUM and its flagship fund returned 10.4% annually between 2002 and 2011, vs. 3.3% for the S&P 500 index.

While many value investors start with the income statement- caring about earnings first and foremost- Friedman and Julis like to take an in depth look at a stock’s balance sheet no matter where in the capital structure they are looking to invest (Canyon Capital invests in debt, including high-yield debt, as well as equities). As a result, it tends to favor similar companies for debt and equity investments: solid cash flow generators that tend away from using that cash to grow the business. While many value investors say that they like to balance value metrics with growth characteristics, return on equity, quality management, or some other factor, Canyon Capital at least indirectly claims to put less emphasis on these factors.