Carlyle May Help CCC Investors: Rubenstein

U.S. private equity group Carlyle will look at ways to help investors who have lost money in Dutch-listed Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein told media in comments confirmed to Reuters by a spokeswoman.

In an interview with France's Les Echos newspaper, Rubenstein said Carlyle had done all it could to help CCC, citing a $150 million credit line provided by its partners "no doubt at a loss," but wanted to try and make amends.

"We are looking at all ways to help CCC investors who have lost their capital outlay. For the most part, these are large commercial banks," Rubenstein was quoted as saying.

In a separate interview with the New York Times, he said: "We're working to find ways to help people to deal with losses and maybe recover some capital."

CCC has defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt and expects its lenders to seize remaining assets as the global credit crunch tightens around leveraged investors.

The Carlyle Group said in a statement on Thursday that as CCC was unable to reach a deal with lenders it expected those lenders to take possession of the fund's remaining residential mortgage-backed securities assets.

Rubenstein also told Les Echos that the 60 funds managing the Carlyle Group's $81 billion in assets were "absolutely not concerned by the problems at CCC."

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