• The casinos of Las Vegas were a big hit with many delegates of the 7th Annual Distressed Debt Investing Forum. Several attendees looked more than a little bleary eyed at breakfast on the second day of the conference after spending the night gambling in the casinos. One attendee confessed to getting only one hour of sleep after going on a gambling spree for most of the night.
• Distinguished panelist Professor Edward Altman, director of credit and debt markets research at the New York University Salomon Center, entertained attendees with his outlook of the defaulted bond and bank loan markets. He confessed to being more than pleased that Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines both filed in the third quarter as they fit in with his forecast for a higher default rate this year. "The champagne was flowing in the Altman household when that happened," he said.
• Hedge funds took a rap from private equity firms, which complained that their new competitors are too aggressive and are taking big risks by doing highly leveraged deals. There was a distinct lack of hedge funds taking part in the panel discussions. One of the few hedge fund panelists that dared to take part in a panel discussion gingerly introduced himself as "one of the bad guys you keep hearing about."
• The total sum of lawyers' and advisors' fees in the restructuring of Enron Corp. is estimated to eventually amount to $1.25 billion, according to Rob Deutschman, president of Cappello Partners and vice-chairman of the board of directors of Enron Corp. Deutschman gave delegates his insights into the extreme complexity of the Enron collapse.