DDJ Philosophy

For example, many traditional managers of large-cap high yield portfolios, which may have significant minimum investment size criteria as well as more rigid investment guidelines than DDJ, do not find it cost-effective to dedicate sufficient resources to cover the middle market segment, which DDJ believes to be less frequently traded and offers smaller investment sizes. This segment accordingly is not as widely covered by high yield research analysts – both on the buy side and sell side – and fewer brokers make a market trading in its securities. By adhering to a disciplined fundamental-oriented investment process and applying value investing principles to the credit markets through exhaustive financial and legal analysis, DDJ seeks to identify and exploit market inefficiencies that arise as a result of such circumstances.

DDJ believes that successfully uncovering these opportunities requires financial and credit expertise, extensive portfolio management experience, and keen legal skills. DDJ calls on all of these strengths in employing a bottom-up, fundamental-oriented investment approach.

By adhering to our investment philosophy, we believe that we are well-positioned to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted rates of return throughout various market cycles.

The horizontal structure of DDJ’s research team, in which DDJ assigns its analysts coverage responsibilities by sector rather than by asset type (e.g., high yield vs. bank loans), enables analysts to develop meaningful industry expertise, more completely understand the risk/reward profile of potential investments, and identify the most compelling investment opportunities in a company’s capital structure. By focusing on a deep understanding of the risks that affect a target company as a whole and not simply a particular debt tranche, DDJ believes that its analysts are better equipped to identify the most attractive leveraged credit investment opportunities across the industries within their coverage universe.

Before choosing to invest in a company, our analysts will typically perform extensive due diligence by seeking out information from various sources, including from company filings as well as through interviews with company management, customers, competitors and suppliers. We also typically:

• Evaluate a target company’s capital structure along with the trading price and relative value of each debt instrument.
• Analyze key financial considerations, such as:
  • Liquidity: a company’s ability to service its debt and other obligations over the short term;
  • Free cash flow: a company’s ability to service its debt and other obligations over the long term; and
  • Asset coverage: overall asset value relative to liabilities incurred through the target class, a critical measurement in gauging downside protection.
• Perform periodic industry reviews to better enable us to recognize the relative value of companies compared with their competition.

Through our exhaustive research process, we strive to assess both management’s capabilities and the target company’s future financial prospects. We leverage our industry network and at appropriate times we seek to develop customized financing solutions for our portfolio companies that provide an attractive risk-reward opportunity for our clients.