Moneymen With $50 Billion Heading Where Banks Fear to Tread
- Direct lenders off ECB radar have more leeway to take risks
- Italy is candidate for alternative loans as bank crisis rages
A statue of Sallustio Bandini stands in Piazza Salimbeni near the headquarters of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA in Siena, Italy, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014. Monte Paschi, the bailed out Italian bank, is selling shares in medical products company Sorin SpA as it disposes of assets to raise funds, according to three people familiar with the transaction.
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/BloombergAs lenders watch Italy lurch through a banking crisis with dismay, Symon Drake-Brockman at Pemberton Capital Advisors LLP is readying his checkbook.
The London fund, along with a unit of Bain Capital LP, is among those lining up $50 billion for leveraged borrowers in Europe including some shunned by traditional lenders, according to estimates by Deloitte LLP. As European Central Bank limits and the Italian upheaval curb risk appetite, direct-lending funds are seeking a bigger chunk of a market which grew by 37 percent last year to 145 billion euros ($155 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.