CANNES, FRANCE—Carlton Group chairman Howard L. Michaels has been working the European markets for a decade now. In fact, he reports that, prior to the credit crunch, his shop, which has offices in Spain, Italy, Greece and Russia, closed something on the order of $5 billion in transactions.

For the past year and half much of his focus has been on distress, as it has been in the US. Now, he says, that patience has paid off and on the troubled asset front, “I’m seeing lenders interested in transactions,” he tells GlobeSt.com in an exclusive interview on the show floor of MIPIM. “Lending institutions are getting their arms around their issues, and they’re ready.”

In the wake of an economically disastrous 2011, “There are only a handful of institutions lending in Europe now,” Michaels says. “Of those that are left, they’ll lend only at a 50 to 60% LTV. Our focus is on higher leverage and non-traditional structures.”

As a result, in the next 12 months, Michaels predicts an influx of as much as $10 billion in distress deals coming his way. His focus is broad, on all sorts of properties, he says, and the firm will be helping banks sell their assets and working with borrowers to negotiate loan buy-backs.

A staple of the strategy in stateside deals Carlton has closed has been online auctions. He says it’s an option he’s offering the Euro markets as well but implied it’s not at the forefront of the initiative. “It’s there if they want it,” he says.

Mark Gollin is heading the European debt push for Carlton. A veteran of Lehman and Apollo, Gollin came on board six months ago to seed the clouds with the teams in the firm’s various offices. Now they’re ready for the clouds to burst.