Turning Debt Into Dollars

Soohyung Kim’s Standard General funds reveal an active, eclectic investment approach with a common thread — distressed debt.

Kim has been particularly adept at identifying companies in financial turmoil and buying their debt, often at pennies on the dollar. In several cases, Kim has turned those investments into big hits — at least on paper.

His roughly $315 million investment in New Young Broadcasting is poised to turn into about a 30% stake in what will be the eighth largest station group once the Media General-LIN merger closes.

A number of funds fall under the Standard General umbrella. SEC filings show at least nine different entities, including three off-shore funds.

Current holdings in the core Standard General LP fund include:

American Apparel: Voting rights to 76 million shares or 44%

Media General: 26.4 million shares, or 30%

Phoenix Cos.: 141,265 shares or about .122%

Radioshack Corp.: 4,978,928 shares or roughly 5%

Sprint Corp.: 1,153,064 shares, or roughly .029%

ALST Casinos Holdco: 28% (ALST Casinos Holdco is privately held, share amounts unavailable.)

Since Kim and former partner Nicholas Singer launched Standard General in 2007, holdings have included telecom, broadcast and cable television, radio, paperboard manufacturers, amusement parks, gambling casinos, natural resources and airlines.

Among its former investments are: Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (now RockTenn), U.S. Airways, Cablevision, News Corp., Liberty Media and Sirius. 

This story originally appeared in TVNewsCheck’s Executive Outlook, a quarterly print publication devoted to the future of broadcasting. Subscribe here.