Biggest Distressed Debt Investor Marks Europe With 19% Gains

Howard Marks was failing miserably. It was 1977, and the research group he oversaw at Citibank had recommended Nifty 50 stocks that lost 90 percent of their value over the previous decade.

Then Peter Vermilye, Citibank’s chief investment officer, gave Marks an option: He could quit research and start a fund focusing on convertible bonds, a niche where neither the New York bank nor Marks had any experience. He jumped at the chance.