In India's $210 bn stressed assets, Deutsche Bank sees a credit bonanza

Deutsche Bank AG, which is in the throes of a global restructuring involving thousands of job cuts, is zeroing in on an Asian market where an unprecedented bad-loan clean-up offers the potential for a credit bonanza. In India, where bankruptcy law changes have injected urgency into efforts to restructure $210 billion of stressed assets, Deutsche Bank sees an opportunity to generate outsized returns by refinancing and trading debt, according to Amit Khattar, Asia-Pacific co-head of global credit trading. Khattar is considering adding to his team. “For India, this is where we think the greatest alpha lies for our credit and financing businesses in the region,” Singapore-based Khattar said in an interview. “We want to get involved in most of the major deals out there. The bank has no constraint in terms of scaling up in this area if there’s an opportunity to grow the business.” Speculators are flocking to India, lured by what the nation’s richest banker has called a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to sift through the wreckage of its bad-loan debacle. Deutsche Bank is already a force there: much of its Asian credit exposure is in India, and the nation accounts for the second-biggest share of regional profits.