Distress signal
Pain ahead for private equity and real estate, time to move into a higher gear? Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks sees pain coming for the real estate and private equity space as firms struggle to refinance their debt. The same leverage that allowed these two asset classes to juice returns will generate disruption, impact returns, and offer up distressed investment opportunities. Speaking to Bloomberg, Marks thinks this will generate some of the best opportunities in more than a decade. Retail and office real estate owners who relied upon leverage to finance deals could hardly have expected the US Federal Reserve to hike interest rates by some 500 basis points. Now, as the time comes to renew those debt arrangements, distressed investors will hope to move into a higher gear themselves. Watch out for those distress signals over the coming years!