In the midst of the hand shaking, deal making and the all-aroundmerry-making, one thing stood out at this year's MIPIM Conferencein Cannes, France. While there was plenty of "cautiously upbeatoptimism," there was little talk (except for a dour assessment bykeynote speaker and former German minister of foreign affairsJoschka Fischer) about the economic crisis affecting much ofEurope, including the full scale Greek debt crisis that nowthreatens to envelop both Italy and Greece. It was the elephant inthe room of which no one spoke, and business continued asusual.

In the meantime, major lending institutions in countries such asGermany and Ireland are bringing record numbers of loans to market.Jones Lang LaSalle predicts the European note sale market will riseto more than $20 billion this year and be characterized by largerportfolio sales and recovery rates meeting or exceeding bookvalues. This is because European lenders will face increasingpressure to deleverage themselves of the large volume of debtcoming up for refinancing through 2013.

Activity will definitely pick up this year as investors look toestablish an early foothold in pioneering loan-sale markets. Overthe past 12 to 18 months, we've seen the note-sale market in the USmature very quickly, achieving prices closer to asset value. Weanticipate this pattern beginning to develop in certain Europeancountries as the euro zone crisis and volatility in the debtmarkets causes more investors to aggressively pursue seasoned paperwith bulk transactions for all types of notes across the riskspectrum.