The story
Founded by Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner in 1995, in New York City.1
Avenue Capital Group was founded in 1995 by siblings Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner. The two founders had previously founded Amroc Investments in 1989 as a $100 million distressed debt investment fund organized in association with the Robert M. Bass Group.
In 1995, Mr. Lasry and Ms. Gardner started their first Avenue fund, Avenue Investments, with less than $10 million. This onshore fund has grown to $509 million as of December 31, 2012.
In 1997, Mr. Lasry and Ms. Gardner formed their second Avenue fund called Avenue International. This offshore fund attracts U.S. tax-exempt and non-U.S. investors. As of December 31, 2012, Avenue International has $1,461 million in assets under management.
In 2012, The firm was featured in Maneet Ahuja's book, The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World's Top Hedge Funds.
In February, 2016 Marc Lasry explained on CNBC that Avenue Capital was taking advantage of the opportunity to purchase loans from European Banks at a discount. As Lasry said: "Most banks are being forced by the European Central Bank to sell loans and therefore we're able to buy those loans at a great discount. The ECB will likely continue to put pressure on these banks to clean up their balance sheet."
In August 2018, it was announced Avenue Capital has invested €250million ($278 million) in Castlehaven Finance, an Irish construction sector lending platform.
In March 2021, Avenue signed an agreement with Indian economy airline SpiceJet to accommodate the financing, sale & leaseback of fifty new airplanes.
In November 2023, Avenue Capital Group launched its Avenue Sports Fund, which provides equity and capital to sports teams and league, primarily in US and Europe. In September 2025, the fund closed after raising over $1billion in commitments.
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Since its inception in 1995, Avenue has raised 14 private equity style investment funds across its three principal regions (US, Europe and Asia) to invest in distressed securities and real estate:
Avenue launched its Asian-focused distressed business in 1999.
In 2004, Avenue launched its European-focused distressed business with Rich Furst as the senior portfolio manager. While building distressed debt, the European branch of the firm also writes loans for small companies that are unable to obtain financing.
From Wikipedia’s article on Avenue Capital Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3