European financial investors, including distressed funds, CLOs and banks, can finally start catching their breath. The idea to have a European secondary market for buying and selling private or illiquid investments is becoming real.

IlliquidX, recently authorised by the FSA, represents the European price discovery market that allows buyers of illiquid or hard-to-value assets, such as distressed debt, loans, structured finance fixed income and bankruptcy claims, to place a bid on these assets directly to the sellers.

IlliquidX specialises in the sale and trading of illiquid securities such as distressed debt loans, defaulted debt, bankruptcy claims, illiquid private and public equities, RMBS, CMBS and other illiquid structured fixed income products through a proprietarily developed platform. Currently for a lot of these asset classes there is virtually no secondary market, and buyers and sellers have no transparent market place to turn to. The IlliquidX Platform will fill this gap: it will run competitive auctions where, for example, administrators and fund managers will be able to liquidate portfolios of illiquid positions.

IlliquidX's core activity also includes debt advisory, financial advisory and restructuring focused on bridge financing, third party investors and new money providers.

"We see great benefit for banks and structured finance managers to have access to a transparent and accessible platform where they can trade illiquid assets anonymously and directly with each other. Why distressed debt? Look around you", commented Celestino Amore, IlliquidX Founder and Managing Director. On the first few weeks since its launch, the company had already €200m+ of illiquid assets listed on its platform and expects growth to be exponential in the next few months.