Lee Cooperman Full Interview With CNBC

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CNBC Excerpts: Omega Advisors CEO Lee Cooperman & Avenue Capital CEO Marc Lasry Speak with CNBC’s Leslie Picker Today

WHEN: Today, Tuesday, February 26, 2019

WHERE: CNBC’s Business Day programming – Live from the Forbes/SHOOK Top Advisor Summit in Las Vegas, NV

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The following are unofficial excerpts from CNBC interviews with Omega Advisors Founder, Chairman and CEO Lee Cooperman, Avenue Capital Chairman and CEO Marc Lasry and CNBC’s Leslie Picker on CNBC’s business day programming today, Tuesday, February 26. Links to video of the interviews on CNBC.com are below.

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

Omega Advisors Founder, Chairman and CEO Lee Cooperman Speaks with CNBC's Leslie Picker on "The Exchange"

Lee Cooperman on Attractive Stocks:

I can find a lot of stocks attractive relative to their fair value. And importantly, the conditions that would normally lead to a big market decline just don't seem to be present. What are the conditions that would lead to a market decline? Number one, if the stock market smells an oncoming recession. Recession isn't in the cards. An economic slow down, yes. But a recession isn't in the cards.

Lee Cooperman on Elon Musk:

He's brilliant, but conducts himself like he needs adult supervision, you know. And I'm not invested in Tesla. If I was, I would be very worried about his deportment. And he runs a public company, he has a responsibility to the public. My situation was totally different. You know – I entered into what’s called no admit, no deny, so I have to be careful with what I say, but the bottom line is the S.E.C. is very wrong-minded in what they do. They are abusive in their conduct.

Lee Cooperman on Capitalism:

What made America great is our system of capitalism. And capitalism has some flaws, but socialism has no benefits, okay. And so I'm very worried. I think what happened in New York with the movement led by AOC, I guess her nickname is—

LESLIE PICKER: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

LEE COOPERMAN: -- is disgraceful. I mean, the number of jobs lost, wealth--

LESLIE PICKER: You mean with Amazon? With Amazon?

LEE COOPERMAN: Yes, absolutely, disgraceful. Totally disgraceful, and wrong.

Avenue Capital Chairman and CEO Marc Lasry Speaks with CNBC’s Leslie Picker on CNBC's "Power Lunch"

Marc Lasry on a Recession:

Everybody's worried about a recession. I don't think that's happening at all. I do think you're going to have slower growth. And what that means is, at least for most people, you're going to feel that. It's not going to feel as if things were as good as they were last year. It's just going to be slower.

Marc Lasry on Equities:

If you're an investor, really what you really want if you're an equity investor, you want 3% to 4% growth because that's actually great for equities. If you're a debt investor, aha.

LESLIE PICKER: Present.

MARC LASRY: Present. What you want is you want anywhere from % to 2% growth. So for what we're doing, it's great. For equities, I think you'll find equities are going to have a harder time.

Marc Lasry on PG and E:

We ended up participating in that. We ended up doing the dip financing there. So we thought that was a pretty safe investment. We thought we were getting a bit overpaid for that. I think there's a lot of opportunities there and we'll probably end up doing a little bit more in that situation.

Marc Lasry on Tesla:

Even if the equity drops, look, the equity could drop by sort of 80% and we're fine. So I don't think it's great for Elon Musk but I think for the company, at least for where we are and where we're invested in the capital structure, we're fine. So, you know, if the bonds go down a little bit more because people are nervous, that would be a great opportunity for us to buy more of those bonds.

Marc Lasry on Basketball and Investing:

You've got to be able execute. It’s the same thing on the investment side. You’ve got to be able to make investments that are going to work out. So I think the NBA is fine and I think everything is going to work itself out. The Knicks will get back to where they are, hopefully in the next draft and with some of the salary cap they have. But a lot of it is going to be, do they make the right choices? As somebody who lives in New York, I hope they do. And as somebody who owns the Bucks, I hope they don't.

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