By Simon Challis
LONDON (Reuters) - The subprime-related meltdown in the corporate debt market is creating the best investment opportunities in the credit markets in years, the head of hedge fund firm Centaurus Capital said on Tuesday.
"We expect we are going to be very busy on the credit side," said Bernard Oppetit, Centaurus' Chairman and CEO, speaking at the Reuters Hedge Fund & Private Equity Summit in London. "We are starting to see opportunities that we have not seen in a very long time."
The firm is reversing its equity-focused investment strategy, to focus on the credit markets for the first time in five years.
"Credit markets have done a lot worse than equity markets. There is a disconnect there that is striking," said Oppetit. "Given the environment, we're moving more towards credit again."
Oppetit said: "We are now at a stage where we can find some very attractive pieces of paper to buy, both loans and bonds. This is what we've been doing in the last couple of weeks."
Corporate debt issued by highly rated financially strong companies was now trading at attractive discounts, he said.
"One striking feature of this crisis we've been through is that the corporate bond market has gone down ... to levels which have not been seen for many years."
CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND Continued...
© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.
| Japan Investment | Jul 01 - 2, 2008 | Country Summits |
| Global Real Estate | Jun 23 - 25, 2008 | Real Estate |
| Consumer and Retail | Jun 16 - 18, 2008 | Consumer Retail |
| Investment Outlook | Jun 09 - 12, 2008 | Financial Services / Exchanges |
| Global Energy | Jun 01 - 5, 2008 | Energy |
