BlackRock Starting Another Loan Fund

BlackRock Inc., the biggest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, is seeking about $3 billion for a fund to buy loans that banks are selling for losses, according to two investors with knowledge of the matter.

The fund, BlackRock Credit Investors II, would invest in leveraged buyout loans that banks are trying to unload after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market drove investors away from all but the safest securities, the investors said.

Last year the New York company raised $3 billion for its first such fund.

"As a result of the credit dislocation, there have been quite a few investment opportunities," said Jay Fewel, a senior equities investment officer at the $75 billion Oregon State Treasury, which will put $100 million into the new BlackRock fund. BlackRock, which manages $1.4 trillion of assets, would not discuss the new fund.

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