Howard Marks

Profil Smart Money

Howard Marks

Oaktree Capital

Howard Marks — Oaktree Capital
Oaktree
Fonds principal
4,3 Md $
Valeur du portefeuille 13F
Distressed · Crédit
Style d'investissement

Profil et philosophie d'investissement

Howard Marks et Oaktree Capital se sont tournés vers les infrastructures énergétiques au premier trimestre 2026, en constituant une importante nouvelle position dans Petrobras. La société conserve sa position dominante dans la dette en difficulté et le crédit opportuniste, ses principales positions actions étant TORM PLC et Chesapeake Energy. Marks continue de souligner que la maîtrise du risque et la conscience des cycles sont les clés de la performance à long terme.

Track Record

Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital in 1995 after running the high-yield desk at TCW. Oaktree grew into one of the world's largest alternative-credit managers, with roughly $200 billion in AUM across distressed debt, high yield, private credit and real estate, and was partially acquired by Brookfield in 2019. Its flagship distressed-debt funds have delivered net IRRs in the mid-teens across multiple cycles, with the post-2001 and post-2008 vintages especially strong. Marks' investor memos, written since 1990, are required reading inside the industry; Warren Buffett has publicly endorsed them. He is a Wharton and Booth graduate and author of ‚The Most Important Thing' and ‚Mastering the Market Cycle'.

Trades emblématiques

Post-Lehman distressed, late 2008
After Lehman's collapse, Oaktree deployed roughly $6 billion in distressed credit in ten weeks — one of the most aggressive deployment paces in the firm's history. Marks' October 2008 memo ‚The Limits to Negativism' argued the market had priced in catastrophe. The 2008 vintage distressed fund went on to deliver one of the strongest IRRs in private credit history.
European bank deleveraging, 2011-2014
When Eurozone banks were forced to sell non-core loan books at deep discounts post-sovereign-debt crisis, Oaktree was a major buyer of Spanish and Italian real-estate-backed credits and stressed corporate loans. Patient workouts over several years produced strong recoveries and seeded Oaktree's European real-estate platform.
Energy distressed, 2015-2016
As the oil crash hammered US shale credits, Oaktree raised a dedicated energy distressed vehicle and stepped in as forced sellers exited. As oil stabilized and producers restructured, recoveries on the 2016 vintage came in well above purchase prices, validating the cycle-aware framework Marks lays out in his memos.

Stratégie actuelle (2026)

Marks does not run a 13F-driven equity book; Oaktree's exposure is concentrated in private credit, distressed debt and real estate. His 2025-2026 memos have hammered one theme: the ‚sea change' in interest rates from a 40-year tailwind to a structural headwind, making credit the most attractive risk-adjusted asset class for the first time in over a decade. Oaktree is leaning heavily into senior direct lending at low-double-digit yields, opportunistic real-estate credit where regional banks have retreated, and is staging dry powder for a possible default cycle as the maturity wall in leveraged loans approaches. He has been cautious on equities, arguing the index-level multiple is not pricing the new cost of capital. The base case: clip credit coupons, get paid to wait, deploy aggressively if defaults rise.

BMI

BMI Counter-Take

Marks is the most useful macro voice in the industry precisely because he does not predict — he calibrates. The ‚sea change' framing is correct and underpriced by retail: bonds and private credit now compete seriously with equities for the first time since 2008. What we would push back on is the implied bearishness on equities. The same higher-for-longer regime that boosts credit yields also keeps marginal capital expensive, which is bullish for incumbent mega-cap free-cash-flow machines. The right read is not ‚own credit, sell stocks' — it is ‚stop overpaying for narrative growth, demand cash today'. The discipline transfers cleanly.

Portefeuille actuel

DERNIER 13F 2026-03-31

Dernière déclaration SEC Form 13F. Valeur totale du portefeuille: 5,48 Md €. Positions: 142 positions.

TitreTypeActionsΔ vs préc.Valeur (€)Portefeuille %
Torm PLCCommon23,8 M-9.8%589 M €10,7 %
Expand Energy Corp.Common5,24 M+3.5%501 M €9,15 %
Invesco Qqq Trust Series 1Put570.000★ NOUVELLE287 M €5,23 %
Anglogold Ashanti PLCCommon3,22 M-16.2%274 M €4,99 %
Garrett Motion Inc.Common14,6 M-14.6%231 M €4,22 %
State Street Spdr S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETFPut1,00 M★ NOUVELLE159 M €2,89 %
Telephone And Data Systems Inc.Common4,29 M+16.4%158 M €2,88 %
Viper Energy Inc.Common3,79 M-39.7%155 M €2,83 %
Core Scientific Inc.Common9,40 M+12.6%122 M €2,23 %
Sunopta Inc.Common20,7 M117 M €2,14 %

SOURCE : SEC Form 13F (2026-05-15). BMI Smart Money Tracker.

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