The London-based group he heads, Liberty Capital, specialises in buying distressed businesses, turning them around, and selling them on.

He specializes in leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses.

A bankruptcy specialist in the United States, he has promoted the idea of vulture investing here, or buying distressed businesses that can be salvaged for profit.

Although foreign investors have bought big stakes in Japanese companies before, they have usually bought distressed businesses when a Japanese buyer could not be found.

The company, whose consultants specialize in helping distressed businesses, announced plans recently to acquire the bankruptcy consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

CoffeeMat turned out to be a struggle, but they used that experience to start a consulting practice to help distressed businesses, and eventually to the turnaround business.

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.

MatlinPatterson's distressed business pursues illiquid control and activist non-control investment strategies, as well as a range of liquid trading strategies.

Mr. Zell has a history of buying into distressed or undervalued businesses, so much so that he once nicknamed himself "the grave dancer."