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When, about a year ago, Rajay told me that he wanted to write a book about high yield investing, my reaction was two-fold. On the one hand, time commitment required to write a book, while managing a successful hedge fund, seemed to present a daunting challenge. On the other hand, after 20 years of practicing corporate law and handling a wide variety of leverage finance transactions, I understood that this book was long overdue. Having had to explain the very basics of high yield instruments over and over again in each transaction, I could understand how frustrating it could be to try and overcome common misconceptions, lack of knowledge, and suspicious attitudes.

As friends and colleagues who were involved in leverage finance for many years (Rajay, on the business side and me on the legal side), both of us knew well that the high yield market was largely misunderstood. The excesses of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which resulted in prominent criminal prosecutions, as well as a commonly-held notion of high volatility and high default rates of high yield instruments, gave the high yield market a bad reputation, the reputation that we knew was undeserved. Through a thorough overview of the fundamentals of high yield instruments, filled with facts and unbiased analysis, High Yield Debt: An Insider's Guide to the Marketplace debunks these myths of excessive volatility and the inherent danger of high yield market.

Indeed, who could have been better suited to demystify high yield investing than Rajay, who started his investment career at Goldman Sachs, continued it as one of the principals at Apollo Investment Corporation, a publicly traded business development company specializing in high and mezzanine investments, and finally ended up starting his own high yield investment fund that has been steadily generating returns far in excess of market average. And Rajay did it!

High Yield Debt: An Insider's Guide to the Marketplace unravels the mystery of the high yield market chapter by chapter. To put the topic in perspective, the book starts with a historical background (which to me was also a fun part to read as it brought back memories of the days past). It then describes market participants, explains the economics of high yield instruments, and touches upon prevalent debt structures and pertinent legal requirements. The book then moves to demonstrate high performance levels of high yield instruments making them attractive additions to an investment portfolio. The book concludes by addressing some of the more specialized concepts, such as mezzanine investments, distressed debt, and credit hedge funds. An extensive use of charts and statistics lends High Yield Debt: An Insider's Guide to the Marketplace a necessary credibility. Yet, the book is lively written, to keep the reader entertained, while educated.

To be sure, there have been books written about high yield investing before. However, those books addressed primarily the academia and were written in a much more scholarly fashion. I could not imagine any of those books being a desktop set or a day-to-day reference guide. High Yield Debt: An Insider's Guide to the Marketplace, on the other hand, is designed to address the needs of market participants, be it an investment manager in a family office, a young lawyer starting his or her career at a corporate law firm, or a rookie investment banker pitching a new instrument to a corporate client. This is a book that could be quickly referenced to conceptualize an investment thesis for a particular instrument or to understand a market lingo used by more seasoned professionals (for which the Glossary at the end of the book can hardly be praised enough). I would also recommend this book to CFOs of companies that are looking for efficient capital-raising techniques. Overall, the key attraction of this book is its versatility, clarity and scope, all of which could come in handy in many different situations.

Now, more than a year after the idea of the book was first conceived by Rajay, I am still awed by the sheer amount of effort that went into its writing. Yet, I am impressed even more by the quality, breadth and depth of the final product of this monumental effort, the product that deservedly occupies a prominent place on my desk. I am confident that readers will find High Yield Debt: An Insider's Guide to the Marketplace to be an invaluable treasure trove of information about high yield markets. I am very proud to take a small part in the exciting journey that the writing of this book turned out to be. It gives me a great pleasure to congratulate Rajay on the successful completion of his valiant efforts in writing this book and encourage him to embark on new, no less ambitious ventures.

Emil Buchman

Corporate Partner

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP