The current slew of bad news was necessary to get European forestry companies to act, the head of the world’s top paper and board maker Stora Enso said on Wednesday.

For years the European paper industry has suffered from overcapacity, which has kept a lid on prices, while increasing costs of wood and energy have eaten into already low margins.

But Stora’s Chief Executive Jouko Karvinen, speaking at the Reuters Paper Industry Summit in Helsinki, said there has been a silver lining to the “perfect storm” of bad news.

“The good companies will come out of the storm stronger than they were ever before,” he said.

“And as bad as the past eight years have been, and as much as we complain about every possible problem right now, I have one thought: there may be a good thing with this storm. Maybe we will finally get our act together and make decisions that need to be made and start making some real money one day. It will take a little time, but that’s the goal,” he said.

For Marc Holliday, chief executive of SL Green Realty Group and Gramercy Capital Corp, the Tom Petty lyrics ring especially true.

Holliday, speaking at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit, said on Tuesday that his company is waiting with bated breath to hear about which company has won the award to expand the gaming options at New York City’s borough of Queens-located Aqueduct Race Track.

In April, three companies where chosen as finalists for the rights to expand Aqueduct with thousands of video lottery terminals (VLTs) that the state hopes will eventually give it $300 million a year of revenue.

The companies include Holliday’s SL Green, Delaware North, and Capital Play Inc, whose partners include the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority and Victoria Racing Club. 

But things in the New York capital of Albany have been a little dicey recently — especially since former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has left office following a sex scandal and new Gov. David Paterson has questioned whether the things Spitzer agreed to about the expansion plan are binding or if there’s some wiggle room there.

So, anyway, that leaves Holliday and his competitors waiting. SL Green has a plan ready to roll, he said, and that could mean that the preliminary expansion could be ready six months after approval.

Holliday was one of the featured speakers at this year’s global real estate jamboree — which takes place in New York, London, Singapore, Moscowh and Dubai.

LaSalle Investment Managers said its assets under management in Asia could double in the next three years and added it is considering investing in India for the first time. LaSalle Investment holds about $11 billion in Asia property assets under management, and plans to make $10 to $15 billion worth of deals in the next years.

Hear David Edwards, Regional Director speak about the opportunities in China as developers get squeezed by banks and his take on India.

AMP Capital Investors said it was planning to boost its investments in Asia properties to A$16 billion ($15.3 billion) and will start by doubling the S$300 million ($220 million) in Singapore industrial assets it has already bought.

The investment unit of Australia’s top pension fund manager AMP Ltd is also looking to buy properties, or acquire businesses such as real estate investment trusts and developers, in markets including Japan and China.

Chief Investment Officer Andrew Bird tells us what opportunities they see and why they think Japan is hot.

Plain vanilla, in the box, straight financings are the future, or at least near future, of real estate deals, says Marathon Asset Managing Director Scott Schwartz.

“Either the Street kinda comes back and supplies leverage, or people have to get their returns without leverage. And right now we’re at a point where people have to get their returns without leverage. So that’s why there aren’t a lot of deals happening,” he said, speaking at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit.

The heydey of commercial mortgage markets was greased by easy money from Wall Street banks, which routinely made short-term loans to investors who wanted to invest the proceeds in longer-term assets, such as commercial mortgage-backed securities. The onset of the U.S. credit crunch last summer has pinched banks’ balance sheets, forcing them to rein in the credit they provided to these investors.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Sure thing, kids LOVE the bubbles. The blowing, the running around, the popping.

All the things that gives real estate investors and developers fits.

Any simple search on “real estate” in a news story for the past two years would more than likely also mention the word “bubble”. In fact, a quick Google search of “real estate” and “bubble” turned up 998 news stories — in the past month!

At the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit, the problems that have plagued — and continue to plague — the real estate market has been much on the minds of all our guests, including Scott Schwartz, managing director of Marathon Asset Management.

Recognizing the breadth and depth of this real estate trough is critical for Schwartz’s business, but it is also equally key for him to see what’s coming at him down the road.

That is, “What’s next?”

Schwartz wonders about the expansion currently happening in Dubai and also sends up warning flares on another non-US economy — which he mentions in the attached audio clip.

Schwartz was one of the featured guests on the first day of the U.S. arm of this global summit — which has guests in New York, London, Dubai and Singapore and runs through Thursday.

So much has already been said and written about the bursting of the U.S. real estate bubble, one might make the mistake of thinking that a widespread rebound is right around the corner.

Well, Scott Latham, executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, said on Monday that there are still some discouraging signs out there.

Latham, speaking at the Reuters Global Real Estate Sumitt, warned that the continued problems in the financial sector — especially in his target area of New York City — suggests that more weakness exists.

And he said that both the buy side and the sell side recognize that these problems still exist. 

In Latham’s view, the main macro-economic concern is that, unlike in years past, this credit crunch is more global in nature. In the past, if New York investors were having a tough time raising cash, investors from the U.K. or Japan could be counted on to rush in and make a market for a property. Now though, it’s hard for anyone to get the credit they need to raise the cash for mega-property deals.

Latham was one of the featured speakers at this year’s summit, which is taking place in New York, London, Tokyo and Dubai and will feature guests who focus on both retail and corporate properties.

The state of the U.S. economy has been much on the minds of all our guests at this year’s Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit.

Most of them tried to put on a brave face about the current state of play, but Whirlpool’s North America President, Michael Todman, gave what to us sounded like a pretty accurate assessment of how stretched the U. S. consumer seems and when he sees a turnaround.

Whirlpool, which is still integrating all the parts of its Maytag acquisition, is in an interesting spot, because they have felt the brunt of the crumbling U.S. housing sector and then got a double whammy from the cut in U.S. discretionary spending.

Todman comes across as an optimist though, and sees Whirlpool well positioned to get through these recent problems and feels his brands will augur well for long-term growth.

Todman was one of the featured guests at this year’s retail jamboree — which continues through Thursday in London and New York.

Jim Schaye comes across as a perfectly nice fellow, but if you happen to work for a retailer and you see him walking up and down your aisles, checking out your stuff … well, think about dusting off that resume.

Schaye is chief executive of Hudson Capital Partners, and he works with struggling or restructuring retailers if they have to start selling off stores and/or getting rid of inventory.

So, if retailer “A” is declaring bankruptcy or some other similar event and they start selling off their stuff, Schaye and his team will bid to take over all the assets and sell them. They’ll sell it all — merchandise, real estate, even the shelves that the stuff is on will be sold.

Suffice to say, Schaye and his team have been busy these days — and they expect more business very, very soon. In this clip, he talks about one potential issue that is starting to come up — a glut of certain types of real estate which has fallen out of favor among those companies that might be buyers.

Schaye was speaking at this year’s Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit, which runs through Thursday in New York and London.

The days of going through the Sunday papers and clipping all the double coupons you can find might be coming to an end.

While there are those few people out there (and we know some of them!), who actually enjoy a good session of clipping, Brent Dusing, co-founder and chief executive of Cellfire Inc, likes to see his coupons on his cell phone.

Cellfire, the first mobile application that allows people to use coupons and discounts from their favorite stores and restaurants, has been around for almost three years and has crafted a number of deals with national retailers like McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Hollywood Video, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Arby’s and Ben & Jerry’s and a batch of local retailers, too (in Seattle alone there’s Mama Lucia’s, Dante’s or the Seattle Art Museum).

How does it all work? Walking or driving down the street, you get a message from Cellfire that says the retailer in your zip code has a special deal — so swing by and spend that cash.

Dusing — who seems appallingly young to have come up with such a cool idea — said at the annual Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit that business is doing well and they are adding retailers at a good clip.

Dusing was one of the featured guests at this year’s summit, held in London and New York. Next week, Reuters Global Real Estate Summit will be held in North America, Europe and Asia.