Daniel J. Arbess

Daniel J. Arbess is a Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners and Portfolio Manager of the firm’s Xerion strategy. Xerion pursues investment themes and event-driven opportunities using a wide range of corporate securities and macro asset classes.

Career

Arbess has been professionally involved in global themes and developments for over 25 years. As a law student and Affiliate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Arbess developed a deep interest in East-West political and economic relations and the economic transition of the former-communist world. During his law school years, he published extensively on legal, political and moral aspects of nuclear weapons and arms control.

Arbess joined the international law firm White & Case in 1987 and was among the first Western lawyers on the ground in Eastern Europe, moving to Prague in 1990 to advise the Czechoslovak government on its economic transition, principally on privatization policy and transactions. In 1992, at the age of 31, he became the youngest partner in the history of White & Case and Head of its Global Privatization Group. Arbess was known as one of the leading practitioners of emerging markets restructuring and privatization during the early 1990s. Among his advisory transactions included the restructuring and sale of Skoda to Volkswagen and the reorganization and disposition of one of Europe’s largest downstream petrochemical industries.

Arbess became an investment principal in 1995, first pursuing restructuring-oriented private transactions in Europe, and later managing portfolio workouts and distressed debt investments for a New York-based asset manager. He launched Xerion Capital Partners in 2003 with backing from the prominent investor Donald Sussman of Paloma Partners. Arbess sold Xerion to Perella Weinberg Partners and became a partner of Perella Weinberg Partners in 2007.

In early 2009, Xerion found itself at odds with the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in the context of the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. Xerion had previously made an investment in the Senior Secured bank debt of Chrysler. Xerion resisted the administration’s plan to give priority recovery to unsecured creditors of Chrysler ahead of the liens of Chrysler’s senior lenders.

Arbess and Xerion have anticipated and captured many of the most important themes that have dominated the investment landscape of the past several years. In 2004, Arbess highlighted the industrialization of China and other emerging markets as a pivotal avatar of investment opportunity for a generation of investors. He also began exploring ways to position around excessive household leverage as early as 2004. Arbess successfully identified the looming credit crisis in June 2007 and implemented his views by shorting subprime mortgage bonds all the while (correctly) expressing continuing conviction in the emerging markets industrial dynamic throughout the financial crisis of 2008. In late 2008, as Western governments moved to cut interest rates and provide unprecedented support to financial markets, Arbess turned constructive on the “reflation” opportunities in risk assets across the spectrum from debt to equities, gold and other commodities. Toward the end of 2009, Arbess anticipated that the investment landscape in 2010 would be dominated by macro risks, specifically the potential for a disappointing global recovery and risks associated with Western sovereign fiscal imbalances. His 2011 outlook is concerned with these same ongoing macro risks but also focuses on the opportunity for rising consumption in emerging markets to help move the world away from deflation and toward sustainable growth.

Arbess is a frequent writer and commentator on investing and global markets. He discussed his long term outlook and important investment themes as a featured speaker at the 15th Annual Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference in New York.

Education

Arbess was born on January 23, 1961 in Montreal, Canada and is a United States citizen. He received a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and a Master of Laws from the Harvard Law School.

External links

• pwpartners.com.
• "Ira Sohn: Which 2010 Tips Did the Best", Absolute Return + Alpha Magazine, May 24, 2011.
• "Perella's Arbess Interview on Commodities (May 13)," Bloomberg, May 13, 2011.
• “For Investors, China's Boom Is a Rough Ride,” The Wall Street Journal, Gregory Zuckerman, February 6, 2011.
• “Biggs Says Asia Stocks to Beat S&P 500 in Next Year,” Bloomberg, Ye Xie and Tom Keene, February 2, 2011.
• “Dan Arbess’ Xerion Fund: 2011 Investment Strategy & Outlook,” Market Folly, January 12, 2011.
• Bloomberg TV interview, Daniel Arbess with Betty Liu of “In the Loop with Betty Liu,” January 6, 2011
• “Wall Street Warms to China Story,” The Wall Street Journal, Dennis Berman, January 2, 2011.
• “Default Swaps Jump Most Among BRICs as Inflation Breaches 5%: China Credit,” Bloomberg, December 13, 2010.
• "A 24-Karat Safety Net for Investors," The New York Times, Nelson D. Schwartz and Graham Bowley, November 9, 2010.
• "Default Swaps Show Hu Jintao Bond Risk Approaches Treasuries," Bloomberg, Shelley Smith, October 10, 2010.
• Bloomberg TV Interview, Dan Arbess with John Erlichman, October 7, 2010.
• "From West to East," Barron's, Eric Uhlfelder, October 23, 2010.
• "Arbess Sees 'Good Return' for Distressed Corporate Debt," Bloomberg TV, Interview with Jonathan Erlichman, October 7, 2010.
• "Daniel Arbess Interview on Global Economy," Bloomberg.com, In the Loop With Betty Liu, August 4, 2010.
• "Top Hedge Funds That Dodged Crash, Rode Market Back," Bloomberg.com, Saijel Kishan, July 30, 2010.
• "Investing as the Foundation Shifts," 15th Annual Ira Sohn Research Conference Presentation, May 26, 2010.
• "Managing the Debt Crisis Means Rebalancing Global Consumption and Leverage," Absolute Return + Alpha, June 15, 2010.
• "View from the Markets: Daniel Arbess on themes from 2009," Financial Times, December 8, 2009.
• "View from the Markets: Daniel Arbess Discusses Inflation," Financial Times, December 8, 2009.
• "View from the Markets: Daniel Arbess Discusses China and Commodities," Financial Times, December 8, 2009.
• "Bearish Turns," The Economist, June 21, 2007.
• "The Vultures Take Wing," The Economist, March 29, 2007.