The answer is that debtholders who aren’t paid as scheduled have a “creditor claim” against the debtor. In short—and to over-simplify—when a company goes through bankruptcy, the old owners are wiped out and the old creditors become the new owners. Each creditor receives his share of the value of the company—depending on the amount and seniority of the debt he holds—in some combination of cash, new debt and ownership of the company going forward. A distressed debt investor tries to figure out (a) what the bankrupt company is worth (or will be worth at the time it emerges from bankruptcy), (b)
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