Pursuits
Distressed-Debt Investors Flock to Italy for Bad Loans
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Distressed-debt investors are flocking to Italy as lenders begin offloading the nation’s biggest stockpile of bad loans on record.
An unprecedented 166 billion euros ($224 billion) of non-performing loans are on bank balance sheets, according to the latest data from the Italian Banking Association, up from 42 billion euros in 2008. Global private-equity firms including Anacap Financial Partners LLP and Fortress Investment Group LLC have started acquiring at least 7 billion euros of the debt, according to data from PriceWaterHouseCoopers LLP.