Sona Founder Sees Looming $100 Billion Europe Credit Problem (1)

About $100 billion of European leveraged credit will struggle to refinance before it matures in three years time, according to Sona Asset Management founder John Aylward, as the legacy of a deals frenzy driven by cheap debt during Covid comes due.

Underwriters became too complacent during the pandemic about private equity firms’ ability to make good decisions or work out bad ones, he said at the Bloomberg Hedge Fund Forum in London.

“There’s about $200 billion plus out there that needs to be refinanced by 2028,” said Aylward, whose firm oversees about $14 billion. “It’s a self-selecting pool of ...