The fund manager, which was formed from the debt trading arm of Lazard in 2002, currently has around one-fifth of its capital, $1.1bn, invested in Europe. This is expected to increase as the region’s banks look to shed bad assets.
The office will be led by Josiah Rotenberg, who currently heads up the firm’s European operations from its Israel office.
Until recently traditional distressed debt opportunities were relatively scarce in Europe due in large part to the ECB’s liquidity measures. Hedge funds were, however, key investors in European peripheral sovereign bonds.
Distressed debt hedge funds have been gaining traction in the market, and distressed debt has been the best performing strategy for the past nine months.
How did hedge fund managers react to last week’s announcement that new funds would be able to market themselves for the year following the implementation of the AIFMD? Read all about it here.
Distress elsewhere
Hedge fund managers are not the only ones looking to take advantage of distressed debt opportunities in Europe.
The number of real estate debt funds on the road has increased almost three-fold in the past year, from seven to 19. These funds are targeting an aggregate €10bn, a 300% increase on the distressed debt-chasing capital last year which stood at €2.3bn.
Last week we reported that the UK real estate market was undergoing something of a renaissance. Find out more.
