PRO Talks: Distressed securities investor Jeff Aronson reveals where he's finding opportunities

Veteran securities investor Jeffrey Aronson offered insights about distressed investing opportunities in an exclusive interview with CNBC PRO's Jeff Cox.

Distressed securities are riskier in the current economic environment, he said. "The most important thing to remember about investing in distressed securities: It's really, really cyclical. That's just a fact of life," he said. "When times are a bit rougher, and there's a lot of volatility, and perhaps the economy is weakening, it's a space where you want to be extremely aggressive even though it looks like the sky is falling."

Aronson co-founded Centerbridge Partners in October 2005, and he has nearly 30 years of experience in credit, distressed strategies and special situations. Prior to founding Centerbridge, he was a partner at Angelo, Gordon & Co., where he led that firm's distressed securities and leveraged loan effort. His firm manages $30 billion.

"So in this type of environment we have to look a bit further-of-field, so for example we have a lot of focus on Europe these days. Europe, while things are improving, there was so much bad debt among financial institutions and the banks, and even though that was a number of years ago, we're still finding opportunities there."

The situational investor also discusses:

  • Why today's market is so risky for distressed investors.
  • Intrinsic pitfalls in chasing distressed firms.
  • Comparisons to the market immediately following the financial crisis.