MSN MoneyCentral – One of Germany’s biggest “locusts” has praised the speed and efficiency with which the country is handling its economic problems.<\/p>\n
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 \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 and I don’t see that \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 it’s really going to turn around fast. There aren’t many countries I would be so confident about in continental Europe.”<\/p>\n
Lone Star, which made its name swooping on beleaguered Asian banks in the 1990s, has spent the past three years buying up \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c2\u00ac11bn ($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.<\/p>\n
Along with other private equity investors and hedge funds that have poured into Germany recently, the firm was last year branded a locust \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 intent on stripping the country of its best assets \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 by Franz M\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00bcntefering, now vice-chancellor.<\/p>\n