What have Liverpool Football Club, French building materials firm Materis and German forklift truck maker Kion got in common?

They have all been beneficiaries of European banks’ preference to tinker with company balance sheets rather than fundamentally restructure indebted businesses, one speaker said at this week’s restructuring summit.

However, such easy conditions — primarily because banks are reluctant to take big hits on their balance sheets — will not last long if banks’ balance sheets continue to strengthen, speakers said.

“Come the new year there will be a new spate of companies being allowed to go to the wall,” Blackstone’s Simon Davies said.

Tony Lomas, who heads the business recovery services group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said many companies would need to go back to their banks for restructuring.

“I cannot see an upturn in the UK, Europe or the world that will be quick enough or healthy enough to sort these problems out,” he said.

Everyone likes to set records. Think about those two giant twins who felt the need to ride motorcycles for their Guinness Book of World Records picture. What were those guys thinking?

Well, after many Reuters Summits, it seemed we set a record on Monday for the use of the word “crap” in one session.

It’s not a particularly glorious achievement, of course, but when thinking about the state of the real estate industry these past few years the words could have been a lot more nasty.

At the Reuters Real Estate Summit today, Richard Jones, partner at the Dechert LLP law firm and co-chair of the firm’s real estate group, spoke about the kinds of deals that will have to get done to help get the ball rolling on the many restructurings that need to be completed industry-wide in the next few years.

As there are a great number of troubled loans out there, the question of what happens to the worst of them (jokingly granted an effluent-style nickname). Jones, who advises clients on almost every side of an available real estate transaction, gave a good sense of exactly what will have to happen to start seeing the market swing back into action.

Jones was one of the featured speakers at this year’s summit, whch continues through this week around the globe. Reuters will be welcoming guests to centers including New York, London, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney.

For a chance to listen to Jones’ thoughts, please click on the link below:

Richard Jones, Dechert LLC