When firms emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy historic accounting valuations are cancelled and replaced with updated synthetic market value estimates in order to give the firm a fresh start. We find that distress oriented hedge funds following a loan to own strategy (i.e.vulture funds that acquire distressed debt that is swapped for equity at emergence) strategically influence the fresh start accounting value of the Chapter 11 firm. Holding critical positions in the capital structure of the distressed firm grants vulture funds great influence over the bankruptcy negotiations and the determination of the fresh start value. We test for such influence by looking at changes in firm value before and after emergence from Chapter 11. We find that vulture funds that hold strategic debt positions can maximize their investment returns by driving down fresh start firm value, and wait for that value to be driven up when actual market trading commences

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