Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
My guest today is Bryan Krug, who manages the Artisan Partners Credit Team and overseas more than $3 billion in high yield credit investments for the firm. This was my first conversation on high yield, so I took it as an opportunity to get an overview on the investment universe and hone in on the tools used for analysis and security selection. As an equity investor, I think one of the most fruitful areas of research is into ways that companies fail or go wrong, and credit investors focus almost entirely on this potential for impairment. My guess is that all equity investors will learn something useful from this conversation, so please enjoy.
High Yield Credit
Maybe before we get into what opportunities are dangerous, the credit cycle creates at different points, you could outline, because this is the first time I've had any conversation with anyone specifically about the high yield of universe and really about fixed income in any level of detail, to be honest, I'm much more of an equity guy. So maybe highlight what that universe of high yield looks like, how it's defined, and from that definition, we'll kind of get into some of the more particulars.