After four decades in and around the capital markets, I’ve decided to do something I probably should have done years ago: put everything in one place.
Welcome to michaellielacher.com.
I started on the Vienna Stock Exchange in the 1980s, back when a phone and a good memory were the trading infrastructure. Since then I’ve co-founded a bank, watched markets boom and unwind more times than I care to count, and spent the last decade-plus in Monaco working on the unglamorous end of finance: distressed assets, non-performing loan portfolios, and companies that need restructuring rather than applause.
That last part is what this site is about.
Distressed assets are a strange corner of the market. When things go wrong — a loan book sours, a company slides toward insolvency, a bank needs exposure off its balance sheet — the people involved often speak completely different languages. The bank thinks in provisions and regulatory pressure, while the buyer thinks in discounts and recovery rates and the administrator thinks in statutes and deadlines. Deals often fail because nobody in the room has sat on all sides of the table.
I have. That’s the perspective I’ll be writing from here.
What to expect from Insights
This section of the site will be a working notebook. Here and there, I’ll publish pieces on:
- How NPL portfolio transactions actually work
- Distressed real estate, and where the opportunities really sit
- Restructuring and insolvency processes, explained without the jargon
- The occasional look back at market cycles I’ve traded through, and what they rhyme with today
A newsletter is coming later this year for those who prefer this in their inbox. The signup on the homepage will let you know when it’s live.
If you’re a bank with a portfolio problem, a fund looking at distressed opportunities in Europe, or an administrator trying to find a workable path through an insolvency, you don’t need to wait for a blog post; get in touch directly.
Glad you’re here,
Mike