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Isaac Corre

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2023-10-16

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2023-10-16

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1. “I think around 2012, I began to realize that we weren't able to access a lot of opportunities because of the size beaten park. We had launched a $3-point-something billion dollars. At that point, we're running $15 billion, and we were trying to size positions based on the firm's capital. So if you're looking for $100, $200 million positions, you're really missing out on some really interesting opportunities. And I used to complain that we can't bend down to pick up $5 million. And sometimes when you bend down to pick up $5 million, you find $10. There's a lot of really good alpha opportunities there. So I felt that the strategies that I was running would do better in a smaller format where we could access some of the, now I think we'd call those microcap, but the mid-cap type opportunities. And so I felt that I really like the strategy and I really like the business model. I also thought the business model, frankly, would be easier to execute in a smaller firm. It's one thing to do that with 100 people. It's another thing to do it with 20. So I began to think about the prospects of doing it. If you had said,”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Pretty much stayed with that set of responsibilities until the beginning of 2009 when Erica asked me to take over the distressed credit part of the portfolio. Our house was pretty negative on credit. We started building a dedicated credit effort in 2008. We made some personnel changes there. At the end of 2008 because anyone who got any credit in 08 lost money. And then in 09, Eric asked me to take that over and it was just a great opportunity. One of my colleagues here at Governor's Lane was working with me at Eden Park, Bruce Haggerty. Two of them actually in Fennel Gadodra, both of whom had come from restructuring backgrounds, I had done a fair amount of bankruptcy litigation. So it was a pretty natural fit for us. And we were involved in a lot of the large bankruptcies, Lehman CIT, some of the auto stuff, a bunch of the financials.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “So I started out running the US event driven business, which was basically going to be merger arbitrage and special situation equities. At the time, we didn't have a dedicated credit effort despite what I just mentioned to you because the house view was that credit was so unattractive as an asset class. And we were from almost day one shorting pretty much every index. We eventually got involved in the subprime short. So my beat was primarily U.S. merger arbitrage, both announced but hostels and up for sale as well as other event driven equities. But I had pretty wide latitude in terms of what I could invest in on that. Pretty quickly, Eric wanted me more involved in some of the international things, whether it was sectors that I had some specialty in the United States or arbitrage situations. And I suddenly discovered that I was responsible for Australia as well, which didn't do great for sleep, but was actually at the time a really exciting area to be investing because of all the consolidation activity in the mining industry.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “So, I think Eric really felt that the thing to do was to have a large organization across geographies where basically you always had someone looking at pretty much every asset class that traded in the public markets, as well as a private business. And the idea was that if you could get the culture right, if you could cross-pollinate between the geographies and the strategies, you'd be able to generate better results and then create the best ideas portfolio.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “To Eric. The rest of the team was kind of a sideshow, but we were talking some of the best institutions while we were trying to build our team. I think that one of the great things about it was that there was so much buzz around the launch. We just had such heft in the labor market. So it was really great to be able to run out and knowing that we're going to have a pretty big launch and hire really high quality people, we launched with two Rhodes Scholars. And at the time, I remember commenting that there's something wrong with the U.S. economy if Rhodes scholars are coming to work at a hedge fund, but I'm really happy to be able to hire them.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “And when Eric left Goldman to start eating park, a number of those folks recommended me to Eric. And I met Eric in early 2004. And I just really thought that one, he was just a really, really smart guy, really nice guy. But also he had a vision that I thought was consistent with what I thought was going to happen in the industry. The industry started out as a cottage industry. Few folks in a room typically guys with a couple Bloombergs, and they traded. And the scale of the industry was getting much, much larger. And it seemed to me that the industry had to institutionalize in a certain way. And Eric, who was, I thought, the perfect person for being one of the architects of that strategy, he came from obviously a very storied institution, but he was a risk taker. We just hit it off really well. We saw the markets pretty similarly, and he offered me the job. I knew it was a big break, and I took it. The launch was a very heady moment, maybe too heady. But, you know, people were lining up at the door to talk.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Event dynamics, but also the fundamentals of the business. It's not like all you have to do is get the event right anymore, and now it's gotten a lot more complicated. And that initial start in Skygan, you joined what was at the time one of the big multi-strategy launches at Eric Mindichon Park. I would love to hear about that experience. When I was at Skog and I had gotten to know...”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “My life. I really loved it. It was so interesting. It was just water skiing through the entire economy. It was just a lot of fun. How would you describe the event-driven investing environment when you started? Back then, it was a good deal easier. A lot of it was, might sound a little crass, but picking off long onlys. There were a lot of alpha donors out there, and something would get announced, whether the merger or a spinoff or a company would get into trouble with some asbestos liabilities. And you just had a lot of reflecting selling. So a lot of what we did was make a quick look at what was going on and then be liquidity providers to people who were panicking. And then you could, over the course of time, figure out what was really going to happen. But the first announcement of something really created this enormous opportunity to get involved. Now I think partially because of the rise of passive and quant, partially because the Darwinian process has weeded out a lot of the alpha donors. It's not as simple as that anymore. You have to be much more focused on both the”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Isaac, great to see you. Good to see you, Ted. Why don't you take me back to how you got into investing? It's a pretty atypical story. I wasn't someone who grew up with the stock market around Wall Street or anything like that. I was actually practicing law and I had developed an academic interest, I would say, in finance theory. I had read a lot of textbooks. But I started getting called by potential clients who were interested in me helping them understand some legal risk that was affecting a security that they were looking at. And what I found was this is in the late 90s, so things have changed a little bit. The market was really, really bad at pricing legal risk. And I'd say I didn't love being a practicing lawyer. It's not like suits. It's not like LA law. But I did find this really interesting, this work really engaging. So I said, maybe I could do this for a living. And people steered me towards distressed at investing in merger arbitrage. And in early 99, I got a job at a fund called Skoggin, and I started my career there. And it was like a switch just flipped. It just changed.”

   2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Before we get going, you won't want to miss this week's release of the fourth episode of season three of Private Equity Deals on Wednesday. It's the story of Avonse's purchase of Univista, a South Florida insurance agency founded by Cuban immigrants who grew it independently, sold it to a kindred spirit at Avante, and professionalized the business from there. As the weather turns cold and your pocketbook reels from your deferred 2022 tax payment, you might find yourself wanting to fly south and relocate to tax-friendly Florida. If you do, and are looking for insurance, you'll know where to go after hearing this incredible story. Thanks so much for tuning in to private equity deals, a separate podcast from the team at Capital Allocators on your favorite podcast player. Please enjoy my conversation with Isaac Cor”

    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “My guest on today's show is Isaac Core, the founder, CEO, and portfolio manager of Governor's Lane, a hedge fund he launched in two thousand fifteen that manages one point six billion dollars focused on event-driven strategies. Isaac describes himself as the least likely person to end up on Wall Street, coming to the business from an academic family and a legal background before finding a passion for the business. Our conversation covers where event-driven investing was 20 years ago and where opportunities and challenges lie today across the disciplines of merger arbitrage, event-driven equities, and event-driven credit. Isaac brings the kind of thoughtful and methodical insights to event-driven investing that are required to succeed in the discipline.”

    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Hello, I'm Ted Sides, and this is Capital Allocators. This show is an open exploration of the people and process behind capital allocation through conversations with leaders in the money game. We learn how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. You can join our mailing list and access premium content at capital allocators.com.”

    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

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    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

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    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

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    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

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    2023-10-16 · Capital Allocators · Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source