Sticky situation

The dust is thick enough on Europe’s E58bn stockpile of leveraged loans to write «sell me» in it with a finger. While the US backlog halved from about $225bn last September, European volume increased 14% over the same span. Movement in the US is picking up pace, too. Deutsche Bank is reportedly looking to unload as much as $20bn of leveraged loans, fresh on the heels of Citigroup’s plans to sell $12bn and Lehman’s shifting $3bn into a new investment vehicle. For now, the same private equity firm...