Guardian Unlimited – Three "distressed debt investors" – hedge fund Polygon, restructuring specialist Oaktree and private equity firm Alchemy – have taken control of Countrywide, Britain’s biggest residential estate agent, which was bought by US private equity firm Apollo less than two years ago for about £1bn, mostly financed by debt. Together, they have taken a majority stake for one-third of the price paid by Apollo.

Distressed debt investors, which specialise in buying financial instruments relating to troubled companies at rock-bottom prices, have been saying for two years that buying debt on the "secondary market" – where company loans are traded after the original lender has sold the debt on – was too expensive. Now, they appear to be judging it the right time to move back in.

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Tags: alchemy, apollo, distressed debt investors, financial-instruments, guardian-unlimited, loans, majority stake, oaktree, private equity firm, residential estate, restructuring, right-time, rock bottom prices, troubled companies

Bloomberg – 21st Century Asset Management Co., run by former Nomura Asset Management Co. executive Takanori Shimizu, said it may seek growth through takeovers after the worst year on record for hedge funds.

Shimizu, 63, said he will also cut costs as the Tokyo-based firm strives to boost assets under management to 40 billion yen ($440 million) by the end of March 2010, from 14 billion yen as at Dec. 31, 2008.

“We are carefully considering possible cost cuts just like any other firm,” Shimizu said in an interview yesterday. “Acquiring another asset management firm to boost our assets may be a good strategy and we’re always on the lookout.”

The global credit crisis forced as many as 920 hedge funds out of business last year while the tally of job losses at financial firms worldwide reached 269,000. Last week, Rheos Capital Works Inc., a Tokyo-based hedge fund, said it would sell a majority stake to IS Holdings Inc. to weather the slowdown.

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Tags: 21st century, asset management co, asset-management-firm, assets-under-management, credit-crisis, global-credit, job-losses, lookout, majority stake, nomura asset management, shimizu, slowdown, takanori, takeovers, tally, tokyo, yen