Europe’s economic and financial “hangover” from the coronavirus crisis will be much longer and more severe than the pain in the US, according to the head of a big US investment group specialising in corporate distress.
Strategic Value Partners raised a new $5bn fund earlier this week to buy debt issued by struggling companies, with a view to taking them over in a restructuring. The extra funds have catapulted its overall assets under management to $17.5bn.
Previous vintages of the money manager’s “special situations” funds have typically been divided roughly equally between US and Europe, but Victor Khosla, the firm’s founder and chief investment officer, reckons Europe will receive more attention in the coming years.