Below is an article (from Reuters) in the International Herald...

Below is an article (from Reuters) in the International Herald Tribune which is worth a read. I don't think it has been posted already, apologies if it has.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/business/rtrdeal10.php

It talks about 'distressed debt investors' ready to 'pounce' in the Asian region, including Australia.

Centro is mentioned as an example.

One of the commentators describes Australia as "the newest big opportunity."

The angle here is large investors buying the debt from the (risk averse) banks rather than buying companies as a whole. Given the banks are having to make larger provisions for loss because of Basel II (a la ANZ this week), there may come a time where they are happy to sell on the debt to other organisations.