# Marc Lasry
**Marc Lasry** is a Moroccan-born American investor who co-founded [Avenue Capital Group](https://www.edgepedia.org/avenue-capital-group) in 1995 with his sister [Sonia Gardner](https://www.edgepedia.org/sonia-gardner)[1](https://www.avenuecapital.com/), and who co-owned the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks from 2014 until he sold his 25 percent stake in 2023 at a $3.5 billion franchise valuation[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/). His career runs from a bankruptcy-law clerkship through the Bass Group's Amroc partnership to fund management and sports ownership, with a net worth Forbes put at $2.1 billion after the Bucks sale[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Firm | Avenue Capital Group, founded 1995 with sister Sonia Gardner; specialty lending, opportunistic credit, and special situations in the US, Europe, and Asia[1](https://www.avenuecapital.com/) |
| Seed capital | $7 million from friends and family per Forbes; CNBC says less than $10 million; a third account says $10 million[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/) • [4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html) • [5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/) |
| AUM path | $1 billion in 2001 to $14.5 billion in hedge fund assets by 2007, plus $3.1 billion in CLOs; about $12 to $13 billion in recent accounts[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/) • [6](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/) |
| Core trade | Buy senior bank loans or bonds at roughly $0.40 to $0.60 on the dollar; $0.50 recovered at $1.00 three years later is at least a 25 percent annualized return[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/) |
| Bucks | Bought 2014 with Wes Edens for $550 million, then a record NBA price; 25 percent stake sold April 2023 at a $3.5 billion valuation, a sixfold profit[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/) |
| Net worth | $2.1 billion after the Bucks sale, up 17 percent year over year but $800 million below the 2023 Forbes 400 cutoff[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/) |
| Politics | Major Democratic supporter who raised funds for President Obama and Hillary Clinton[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/) |
## Early life and background
Lasry was born in Morocco and moved to the United States at age 7 with his family, sharing a bedroom with his two siblings for a decade[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/). He trained in bankruptcy law: he clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York, and began his career practicing bankruptcy law at Angel & Frankel[7](https://www.avenuecapital.com/Team?m=Marc+Lasry).
The move into investing came through debt departments. In 1987 he joined Cowen & Company as co-director of the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization department, where Robert Bass noticed him; earlier he had been director of the private debt department at R.D. Smith, where he first worked in trade claims (debts owed to suppliers of a bankrupt company)[4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html). When he left Cowen, Lasry went to manage over $100 million for the Robert Bass Group, investing in bank debt, senior bonds, and trade claims[4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html).
## Amroc and the founding of Avenue Capital
**The Amroc apprenticeship.** Amroc began in 1989 as a $100 million distressed-debt investment partnership organized by Lasry and Gardner in association with the Robert M. Bass Group[1](https://www.avenuecapital.com/). The Bass fund Lasry oversaw, Amroc Investments, L.P., stood at the time as one of the largest distressed funds in the United States[4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html). One account dates the firm's brokerage operation to 1990, when Lasry and his sister opened Amroc Investments dealing in bank debt and trade claims[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/); the 1989 date for the Bass partnership is the firm's own record. Before forming Amroc Investments, LLC as an independent entity, Lasry managed capital for the L.P.[7](https://www.avenuecapital.com/Team?m=Marc+Lasry).
In 1995 Lasry and Gardner founded Avenue Capital Group. The seed figure varies by source: Forbes says $7 million from friends and family[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/), CNBC says less than $10 million[4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html), and a Capital Ideas interview says $10 million, with the firm reaching $1 billion in assets within five years[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). The brokerage was closed in 2001[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/).
## Investment approach
Distressed-debt investing, as Lasry describes it, involves buying debt of troubled companies from “non-economic sellers.” "The goal is to buy from people who are non-economic sellers," he said in an interview, adding that "your credit work or credit analysis needs to be a little bit better than someone else's (either the sellers or other buyers)"[8](https://hedgefundalpha.com/profiles/marc-lasry-interview-dd-nyu-stern-may-issue/). He also noted a structural tailwind for the trade: "People tend to have a natural bias against something that has traded down significantly," which depresses prices below fundamental value[8](https://hedgefundalpha.com/profiles/marc-lasry-interview-dd-nyu-stern-may-issue/).
**Seniority as downside protection.** Avenue's stated method is to buy senior bank loans or bonds cheaply, generally at $0.40 to $0.60 on the dollar, because senior debt generally ranks ahead of junior debt if the company fails[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). The arithmetic Lasry gives: buying at $0.50 and recovering $1.00 three years later produces at least a 25 percent annualized return[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). A prominent example is [Ford Motor Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/ford-motor-company) bank debt after the 2008 crisis, which fell below 40 cents on the dollar on collapse concerns; Avenue's position produced a $400 million windfall when Ford paid in full at 100 cents[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/).
**Structure and edge.** Starting in 1998, Lasry created institutional funds with five-to-seven-year lockups, about 65 percent of his hedge fund money, so that distressed positions had time to work; pension investors paid 2 percent of assets and 20 percent of profits for steady rather than highest returns[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). Asked for his edge, he pointed to process breadth rather than a single skill: "You need to understand how a company's going to operate in the bankruptcy process and how that's going to affect its ongoing operations. You've got to mesh many different disciplines into one. That's our edge"[9](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-alpha-masters/9781118167571/xhtml/Chapter04.html).
## By the numbers
Avenue's asset trajectory shows a steep rise and a long plateau. [Hedge fund](https://www.edgepedia.org/hedge-fund) assets grew from $1 billion in 2001 to $14.5 billion by 2007, with another $3.1 billion in collateralized loan obligations[5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). Recent figures cluster around $12 to $13 billion: Forbes lists about $13 billion[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/), the Colossus podcast says $13 billion[10](https://colossus.com/episode/lasry-making-bucks-in-credit-and-sports/), Capital Allocators says $12 billion nearly thirty years after founding[6](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/), and a financial data aggregator reports $12.5 billion as of September 30, 2023[11](https://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/avenue-capital/76/). The documented inflection points are the 2011 decision to return half the capital and the sale of a minority stake to [Morgan Stanley](https://www.edgepedia.org/morgan-stanley)[6](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/).
## Milwaukee Bucks ownership
In 2014 Lasry and [Wes Edens](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-edens) bought the Bucks for $550 million, then a record price for an NBA team, as the team was wrapping up a season as the league's worst[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/). The economics of a losing franchise were thin: the team made about $10 million a year, so the purchase price was more than 50 times its income, and Lasry's projections were $10 to $15 million a year in returns[12](https://hedgefundalpha.com/news/how-a-pair-of-hedge-fund-billionaires-bought-the-nbas-worst-team/). In his own later account, "We bought the team for around $500 million, and they were netting around $5 million. Today, the team is breakeven, but the franchise is worth around 1.5 times what we paid. What we learned was that if you want to win, you likely cannot make money"[13](https://www.cfachicago.org/blog/distinguished-speaker-series-marc-lasry/). (His $500 million figure differs from the $550 million purchase price in Forbes and HedgeFundAlpha reporting; the higher figure is the one used in transaction reporting.)
**Winning as the investment.** Lasry's stated lesson was that spending on a winning product raises long-term franchise value at the cost of annual profit[13](https://www.cfachicago.org/blog/distinguished-speaker-series-marc-lasry/). The Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years in 2021[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/), and by later accounts the franchise value had doubled or tripled from the 2014 purchase[12](https://hedgefundalpha.com/news/how-a-pair-of-hedge-fund-billionaires-bought-the-nbas-worst-team/).
In April 2023 Lasry sold his 25 percent interest at a $3.5 billion valuation, a sixfold profit after nine seasons; the transaction lifted his net worth to $2.1 billion[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/).
## Recent developments
Avenue's own description of its evolution is a shift of focus "from distressed debt towards the increasingly attractive private credit markets"[1](https://www.avenuecapital.com/). Combined with the 2011 capital return and the Morgan Stanley minority-stake sale, this marks the firm's move away from the pure distressed strategy of its first two decades[6](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/).
After the Bucks sale, Lasry has made sports investments beyond basketball, which one interview describes as ranging from sailing to bull riding[10](https://colossus.com/episode/lasry-making-bucks-in-credit-and-sports/).
## Politics and public roles
Lasry is a major Democratic Party supporter who raised funds for President Obama and for [Hillary Clinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/hillary-clinton)'s campaign[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/).
## Where sources disagree
Four quantities in this record have conflicting credible accounts. The 1995 seed capital is $7 million per Forbes, less than $10 million per CNBC, and $10 million per Capital Ideas[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/) • [4](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html) • [5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). The Bucks purchase price is $550 million in transaction reporting but "around $500 million" in Lasry's own talk[2](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/) • [13](https://www.cfachicago.org/blog/distinguished-speaker-series-marc-lasry/). Amroc's founding year is 1989 in Avenue's firm history and 1990 in the Capital Ideas account[1](https://www.avenuecapital.com/) • [5](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/). Reported AUM figures range from $12 billion to $13 billion across sources, with no single reconciled figure[3](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/) • [6](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/) • [11](https://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/avenue-capital/76/).
## References
1. [Avenue Capital Group, company website](https://www.avenuecapital.com/)
2. [Maneet Ahuja, "Tax Liens And Sports Teams: Billionaire Marc Lasry's Investment Playbook," Forbes, October 12, 2023](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2023/10/12/tax-liens-and-sports-teams-billionaire-marc-lasrys-investment-playbook/)
3. [Marc Lasry, Forbes profile](https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-lasry/)
4. [Marc Lasry, CNBC profile, July 28, 2017](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/marc-lasry.html)
5. ["Focus on the downside," Capital Ideas Online](https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/focus-on-the-downside/)
6. ["Avenues of Opportunity," Capital Allocators with Ted Seides](https://www.capitalallocators.com/podcast/avenues-of-opportunity/)
7. [Our Team: Marc Lasry, Avenue Capital Group](https://www.avenuecapital.com/Team?m=Marc+Lasry)
8. [Marc Lasry interview, HedgeFundAlpha / NYU Stern May Issue](https://hedgefundalpha.com/profiles/marc-lasry-interview-dd-nyu-stern-may-issue/)
9. [Chapter 4: Distressed Debt's Value Seekers, The Alpha Masters, O'Reilly](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-alpha-masters/9781118167571/xhtml/Chapter04.html)
10. ["Making Bucks in Credit and Sports," Colossus](https://colossus.com/episode/lasry-making-bucks-in-credit-and-sports/)
11. [Avenue Capital 13F holdings and AUM, Insider Monkey](https://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/avenue-capital/76/)
12. ["How A Pair Of Hedge Fund Billionaires Bought The NBA's Worst Team," HedgeFundAlpha](https://hedgefundalpha.com/news/how-a-pair-of-hedge-fund-billionaires-bought-the-nbas-worst-team/)
13. [Distinguished Speaker Series: Marc Lasry, CFA Society Chicago](https://www.cfachicago.org/blog/distinguished-speaker-series-marc-lasry/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Economics and business › Founders, operators, and investors › Hedge funds, trading firms, and public-market investors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 10, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license