Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fortress Investment Group
Daniel Mudd is taking a leave of absence from Fortress Investment Group in the wake of an SEC lawsuit. Reuters

Dan Mudd, CEO of Fortress Investment Group (NYSE:FIG), said the year 2011 could see record asset sales.

Mudd, speaking on Bloomberg TV, said the announced asset sales for next year have already approached $2 trillion. This compares to only about $300 billion worth of actual asset sales in 1998.

Moreover, he thinks as these announced transactions hit the market, prices will firm up, markets will get a little bit clearer, and there will be an additional avalanche of assets that come to market in this great de-leveraging.

In particular, Mudd thinks that as economic growth and confidence picks up, firms in the financial and non-financial sector will start to evaluate their business and decide what divisions they want to get rid of and sell.

This trend will be what post-modern private equity is going to look like, said Mudd.

As far as Fortress is concerned, it plans to buy up these businesses, consolidate control, build them up, and then exit these investments likely through an initial public offering (IPO) down the road.

Nyse Investment