Blackstone Opens Europe Spigot as Distressed-Asset Sales Pick Up

Blackstone Group LP raised more than $4 billion in 2009 to buy European property assets anticipating that cash-strapped banks would be forced to sell as the region’s debt crisis worsened. Almost all of it sat idle for two years.

Today, the inaction has given way to a surge of deals, as lenders from Lloyds Banking Group Plc to Commerzbank AG cut loose soured real estate, corporate and consumer loans. Sales of loan portfolios and other unwanted assets by European Union banks could reach 60 billion euros ($82 billion) in face value this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the most since the firm began tracking data in 2010.