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A licensed real estate broker in Suffolk County, New York, Will Segar founded Segar Consulting, LLC, in 2008 to provide debt restructuring solutions for distressed debtors. As the company’s president and CEO, he works in primary and secondary markets nationwide to analyze and assess distressed loan situations. Will Segar of Suffolk County draws on extensive experience as an owner, investor, and appraiser to help identify creative solutions for each situation. Mr. Segar studied finance at Hofstra University, where he competed for the school’s Division I wrestling team. After graduating from the College of William & Mary with a BBA in finance, he worked in New York for a Dutch lending institution to analyze real estate markets and build new customer relationships. He then spent several years as a second vice president with Chase Manhattan Bank, where he evaluated credit risks for institutional real estate investors, and vice president with Lehman Brothers, where he purchased commercial real estate mortgages for securitization.

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What Is a Distressed Debt?

Distressed debt refers to the securities of a company or government that has defaulted on its obligations or is experiencing financial distress. It includes the credit instruments that trade at a significant discount spread substantially over the industry average. Distressed debt is rated below investment-grade debt and is often part of the leveraged and high-yield loan market. Distressed debt cannot be issued intentionally by an entity. It is only issued when a company cannot pay back its largest and most longstanding debts due to a market downturn, industry-wide changes, or problems with internal mismanagement. Companies with distressed debt are either considering filing for bankruptcy or already under bankruptcy protection. Distressed securities have a credit rating of CCC or lower. In addition, fixed-income securities with a yield-to-maturity of 1000 basis point more than the risk-free rate of return are also categorized as distressed debt. Some of the common distressed debts are bonds, bank debt, trade claims, and common and preferred shares. When a company is in financial distress, the original owners of the issued securities must sell them at a heavily discounted rate. The new buyers strive to hold on to the securities while the company undergoes structuring and to sell them only when the value appreciates. This makes investing in distressed debts profitable for distressed debt firms. Investors of distressed securities specifically target companies with accounting problems and that have oversold securities. They monitor and track corporations and industries on the brink of collapse or that have already gone under. For investors, it is important to gain knowledge of every segment of the issuing company’s capital structure, including its repayment priorities, collateral assets, and other interdependent obligations. Investors must assess the reasons behind the issuer’s distress and determine the returns and risks of investments accordingly. Generally, investors expect that the issuer or the targeted company can be restructured successfully or recover through a merger, acquisition, or significant internal re-engineering. When they purchase a large number of the issuer’s securities, they have the leverage to direct the terms of the restructuring or reorganization. However, there is always the risk of the company going bankrupt. If the company decides to liquidate, distressed debt firms may be able to recover the amount invested in full since they must be repaid before equity holders. However, there are no guarantees. Therefore, only investors with high risk tolerance invest in distressed securities. Some of the dominant players in this market are private equity firms, mutual funds, brokerage firms, and hedge funds. Hedge funds in particular can acquire distressed debt easily through bond markets, where participants can issue new debt or buy and sell debt securities in the form of bonds, notes, bills, or public and private expenditures. Moreover, hedge funds can acquire and sell large quantities of distressed debt from mutual funds without paying exchange-generated commissions or worrying about the impact of the transactions on market prices. The third way for hedge funds to acquire distressed debt is by working directly with the target company to extend credit. This can be in the form of bonds or a revolving line of credit. To mitigate risk, a hedge fund can combine its resources with other hedge funds or investment banks to undertake this endeavor.

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In August 2021, Frank Popolizio, founder of Journeymen Wrestling, a New York-based wrestling event organizer and sponsor, announced they are reforming the college wrestling’s Division I National Duals. Scheduled for December 20 and 21 of the same year, the championship will take place at Northwest Florida State College in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Hosted by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) from 1992 through 2017, the annual National Duals was among the flagship events of Division I Wrestling, scoring top attendance and viewership. Although the NWCA still hosts the multi-divisional national duals for Division II, III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and junior college, the Division I portion of the championship dissolved in 2017. Then Pennsylvania State defeated Oklahoma State, 27-13.

Drawing on his over a decade of experience in running national-level wrestling events, Frank Popolizio took on a mission to bring back that Division I National Duals both out of nostalgia and desire to bridge the gap in the collegiate team competition. Frank’s fascination with the duals and particularly a dual championship dates back to the late 1990s when he watched his brother Pat Popolizio, current North Carolina State head coach, wrestling in the National Duals while at Oklahoma State.

He reminisced of taking an airplane twice a year to watch the collegiate wrestling: NCAAs and the National Duals. The created ambiance was uncanny, and being aware of wrestling fans’ equal appreciation for duals, Frank thought it was about time for the high-stakes and unyielding dual competition to make a return.

The National Duals will feature 12 teams. Among them are five of the 2021 top seven teams from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA): Arizona State Sun Devils, Michigan Wolverines, North Carolina State Wolf, Missouri Tigers, and the 2021 NCAA Champions, the Iowa Hawkeyes. Also, Cornell Big Red, who missed the championship the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and three other top 25 finishers, Virginia Tech Hokies, Northern Iowa Panthers, and Central Michigan Chippewas, are in the line-up. The defending Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Champions Lehigh Mountain Hawks, together with Oregon State Beavers and Hofstra Pride, round the 12-team field.

The 12 teams will form four pools of three. They will be seeded and separated to ensure they will not face an inter-conference opponent. On the first day of the competition, each team will wrestle two duals. On the second day, the winners of each pool will advance to a four-team bracket for semi-finals and finals to determine a National Dual Champion. The remaining schools will wrestle extra duals against teams of correlation pool placement.

Journeymen also invited the top two returning teams in each wrestling conference. The top returning team in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Central Michigan Chippewas, was the only team that accepted the invitation. As a result, Hofstra Pride, which finished fourth in the EIWA, gained entry. All representatives of the Southern Conference (SoCon) declined participation.

While the event’s name is the National Duals, some high-profile matchups for all 12 participating teams are still expected to take place, turning the championship into an exciting midseason milestone in the Division I wrestling schedule.

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Debt restructuring and debt refinancing are often used interchangeably, even by experienced financial professionals, but they are two separate processes. While both relate to debt reorganization occurring to improve a person or an entity’s financial condition, the two differ regarding the contract, as well as circumstances, reasons, and frequency of use.

When it comes to contracts, debt restructuring involves the modification of an already existing contract. For example, common restructuring would be prolonging the due date for the principal payment on a debt contract or altering the frequency of interest payments. Meanwhile, debt refinancing is about starting a new contract with better terms than the previous one and can pay down the latter’s obligation. For example, a borrower can apply for a new, cheaper loan and use its proceeds to pay off the liabilities of an existing loan.

As for circumstances, reasons, and frequency of use, debt restructuring usually happens in special circumstances and is more extreme than debt refinancing. Restructuring could negatively impact a person or company’s credit score, so it is often the last resort for borrowers in dire situations. These include borrowers considered financially unstable and unable to meet debt obligations. They are running the risk of defaulting and thus must negotiate with their creditors to modify the existing contract. The modifications, however, should serve both parties.

If borrowers are aware that they will not pay on time or that a layoff has destabilized them financially, it is advisable to negotiate with the lenders. Lenders do not want borrowers to default on their loans because bankruptcy-related costs are much higher. Thus, in most cases, they are willing to negotiate with distressed borrowers to restructure the loan. Possible restructuring means include waiving late fees, extending payment days, or changing the frequency of payments.

Another option used by large, well-established corporations is swapping out debt for equity. Furthermore, such swaps can also happen with mortgages when a household trades equity in their home to lower the mortgage payments. Debt restructuring enables borrowers to preserve their liquidity, which allows them to restore or maintain cash flow sources to repay the renegotiated loan.

Debt refinancing is quicker and easier to execute, and thus, more liberally used than restructuring. Furthermore, it impacts a credit score positively because the original loan will be marked as paid off.

While the reasons why borrowers may opt for refinancing vary, among the most common ones are to reduce interest rates on loans, consolidate debts, and change the loan structure. Those with high credit scores could benefit from refinancing because it can secure more favorable contract terms and lower interest rates.

Fundamentally, refinancing a debt means replacing one loan with another. Thus, this strategy is often employed when a change in interest rates that may impact new debt contracts occurs. For example, an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve will lower the yield on interest payments of new loans, which will benefit borrowers. In this circumstance, debt refinancing enables them to pay a much lower interest over time for the same nominal loan.

Before trying to pay off loans early, borrowers must do their due diligence and calculate and compare the net present value of the cost of the two loans. The reason is many fixed-term loans have call provisions for penalties in the case of paying down loans before their maturity.