(Photo: Reuters)
(Photo: Reuters)

Global distressed debt and bankruptcy restructuring deal activity doubled in 2012, after Greece buoyed the total volume with the largest restructuring trade on record.

Completed deals rose to $422.6bn last year, including the $263.1bn debt exchange of Greek government bonds last spring[Chart 1].

Source: DISTRESSED DEBT
Source: DISTRESSED DEBT & BANKRUPTCY RESTRUCTURING REVIEW, Thomson Reuters

However, there were 344 fewer deals compared to the same period in 2011 and, if you strip out the Greek transaction, deal volume actually slumped by 23 percent year-on-year.

Throughout 2012, Europe, Middle East and Africa distressed debt restructuring deal volume totalled $342bn, with the government sector dominating the marketplace with 81 percent of the volume largely due to the Greece restructuring [Chart 2].

Source: DISTRESSED DEBT
Source: DISTRESSED DEBT & BANKRUPTCY RESTRUCTURING REVIEW, Thomson Reuters

If you exclude the deals involving sovereign debt, activity was down by nearly a third last year.

Elsewhere, US deal activity was led by the media & entertainment industry, but overall deal volume and transactions decreased by nearly 20 percent in 2012.

In the Asia-Pacific, including Japan, deal volumes fell by a quarter from the total value reached in 2011.

The telecom sector drove activity by capturing nearly half of the market-share.