Hedge funds: The bargain hunters

There are rich pickings to be had amongst the ruins of the summer's ravaged credit markets: hedge funds that survived the crisis are now putting together funds to invest in the wide availability of cheap securities. Nikki Marmery meets the executives at Ilex Asset Management, one of the funds turning its attention to opportunities in the distressed leveraged loan markets.

The summer's credit crisis was sharp, brutal and irrational. The universe of victims quickly spread from mortgage lenders to hedge funds and investment banks, as normal financing relationships and the ability to trade broke down in an unprecedented liquidity squeeze. Mortgage firms went bankrupt, numerous hedge funds closed, and a number of European banks had to be rescued. Worse still, extraordinary losses mounted up at the world's largest investment banks.

During the third quarter UBS announced