Reply #7: Carlyle Capital in default, on brink of collapse

[ozymandius]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Carlyle Capital Corp (CARC.AS), an affiliate of private equity firm Carlyle Group (CYL.UL), said on Thursday it was in default on margin calls of over $400 million, and said its lenders would likely take possession of its remaining assets.

The news provided another sign of stress in global credit markets and in Europe, where Carlyle Capital shares are listed in Amsterdam, bund futures rose back to levels they traded at before the Federal Reserve and its European counterparts coordinated on Tuesday to inject liquidity into credit markets.

Earlier in Asia, the default prompted spreads to widen on the iTRAXX Asia ex-Japan investment grade index.

Carlyle Capital said it was unable to meet its margin calls and was now in default on about $16.6 billion of its debt.
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Carlyle Capital said it was unable to pay the margin calls, so its lenders had proceeded to foreclose on the mortgage-backed securities collateral. The only assets held in its portfolio as of Wednesday were U.S. government agency AAA-rated residential mortgage-backed securities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080313/bs_nm/carlylecapital_lenders_dc