Don't Worry About Oil Below $50, Marc Lasry Thinks Senior Debt Of Oil Companies Is A Tempting Bet Right Now

With the recent declines in crude oil pushing it below $50 and wiping all the gains it made during the second-quarter investors and traders are confused as to whether to bet on oil prices moving higher or end of the year.

However, according to one of the best distressed debt investors of our time, Marc Lasry, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group and part owner of the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, one doesn't need to take a bullish or bearish call on oil directly, rather one can gain significantly by investing in oil companies' debt.

Lasry will feature on this Sunday's edition of Wall Street Week. In this excerpt from that interview, Lasry talked about it's a great time to make a bet on senior debt of oil companies.

Don't Need To Make A Commodity Play

So, our view of oil is at $50 -- which is roughly where it is -- we are not going to tell where oil goes, Lasry said. "What we can do is we can look at where the debt of those companies are trading. And at $50, you want to be in that senior debt."

He continued, "If the oil is at $75, you want to own equity, right? So, we don't need to make a commodity play, really what we are doing is making a credit play, but because of all the issues the company is having because of where oil is, the senior debt has traded down and you are able to buy that senior debt at a big discount."