Wilbur Ross says eyeing assets in southern Europe

TORONTO (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday he is assessing distressed assets in SOUTHERN (SO.NY)Europe and was looking to make some investments in the next few months.

"We're looking in southern Europe, at Greece, at Spain, at Portugal, at Italy, because they're still having some difficulties," Ross said in an interview with Reuters before making a speech to a business audience in Toronto. "In the next few months we'll make some investments."

Ross, who made a windfall after selling a slice of a stake he had taken in the Bank of Ireland , said he finds real estate assets in Ireland attractive, though he added that he wasn't planning to invest in any other Irish banks.

Last month, Ross and Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd received sufficient bids to sell a combined 6.4 percent stake in the Bank of Ireland.

There has been an increase in demand for assets in peripheral euro zone countries as their economies stabilize, particularly in Ireland which has seen a surge in demand for distressed assets from North American investors.

(Reporting by John Tilak in Toronto and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

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