MSN MoneyCentral – One of Germany’s biggest “locusts” has praised the speed and efficiency with which the country is handling its economic problems.
Bruno Scherrer, European head of Lone Star, the private equity group that has been the biggest buyer of so-called distressed debt in Germany, said: “As long as the country doesn’t fall into some kind of complacency – and I don’t see that – it’s really going to turn around fast. There aren’t many countries I would be so confident about in continental Europe.”
Lone Star, which made its name swooping on beleaguered Asian banks in the 1990s, has spent the past three years buying up €11bn ($13.3bn) of non-performing German loans. In December, it sealed its most ambitious deal yet, buying AHBR, one of Germany’s top five mortgage banks, from the brink of failure.
Along with other private equity investors and hedge funds that have poured into Germany recently, the firm was last year branded a locust – intent on stripping the country of its best assets – by Franz Müntefering, now vice-chancellor.
