Wilbur Ross sees Recovery Fund IV invested by January

By Chelsea Emery

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross said on Monday he expects his latest distressed assets fund, the WLR Recovery Fund IV, to be fully invested by January or "early next year," from 30 percent currently.

"If I had to make a rough guess, I would think that sometime early next year we'd be drawn down," said Ross, chairman and chief executive officer of WL Ross & Co, speaking at the Reuters Restructuring Summit in New York. In a follow-up comment, he said that he expected the $4.2 billion fund to be 100 percent invested by January.

Ross, one of the world's best-known turnaround specialists, has helped restructure more than $200 billion of defaulted companies' assets globally, including International Steel Group and International Textile Group. The financier has also sought opportunities in developing nations. In 2005 his firm teamed up with India's Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd to invest in Indian corporate restructurings and turnarounds.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)