Marks reveals Oaktree raised ten billion dollars for distressed debt before Lehman collapsed, three times larger than any prior fund.
“When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in mid September of o eight, we had raised the biggest distressed debt fund in history by a factor of about three.”
Marks deployed seven billion dollars in Q4 2008 at 450 million per week for fifteen weeks after Lehman's collapse.
“He ran the fund in question and he bravely invested an average of $450,000,000 a week for the next fifteen weeks. That's $7,000,000,000 in one quarter.”
Marks raised $11 billion in reserve in early 2007, didn't deploy it until June 2008.
“The first closing was March o seven. We didn't start investing it until June o eight.”