High-Flying Bonds

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Most people find a packed flight to be a disappointment, robbing them of the chance at being next to an empty seat. But Drew Zager sees a silver lining.

Zager, a managing director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management in Century City, focuses on high-grade, fixed-income investments. His office puts together investment-grade bond portfolios for clients, many of whom are billionaire businesspeople and famous entertainers. As part of his job, Zager evaluates the credit of government-owned entities such as airports and school districts. To him, those full planes are not an inconvenience but the sign of healthy traffic at hub airports that might have bonds worth exploring.

“Last week, I flew from Los Angeles to New York to Seattle and back,” Zager said. “Every flight was full.”

Zager, 54, has worked for Morgan Stanley for more than 27 years and has been ranked among Barron’s top 25 advisers every year since 2004. He attributes a lot of his success to his focus on bigger macroeconomic trends, such as the way Americans travel.

Lately, he sees opportunities in decidedly unsexy investments such as local water utility bonds and is generally more bullish on debt issued by states than cities and counties.

“States have a lot more forms of revenue,” Zager said.

Even though his clients include some of Hollywood’s leading lights, he prefers a night with economic data to one on the red carpet.

“I could talk about this stuff all day,” he said.

Comic-Con Star Turn

As chief executive of Wizard World in El Segundo, John Macaluso stages elaborate Comic-Con events where fans get autographs from celebrities and dress as their favorite superheroes.

Now, thanks to a recent TV appearance on Bloomberg Television last month, Macaluso, 58, has some fans of his own.

He went on the air July 22 to explain Wizard World’s business model to “Taking Stock” host Pimm Fox. Macaluso, who acknowledged that he’s no on-screen natural, fielded Fox’s questions from Bloomberg’s Wilshire Boulevard office and said it was a bit of a challenge to talk into a camera rather than to a person. He also said there was no preparation.

Still, after the four-minute segment, Macaluso said he got good feedback in the form of phone calls and emails from family and friends who got a kick out of seeing him on national TV.

“They thought that maybe at my next Comic-Con I should be signing autographs,” he said with a laugh.

Staff reporters Matt Pressberg and Jonathan Polakoff contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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