When the German bank HSH Nordbank launched a tender offer this week for its hybrid securities, it was a pay-off that had been a long time coming for a group of US hedge funds.

Going back to last June, when the Hamburg bank hosted a meeting at its office in the Helmsley Building adjacent to Grand Central Terminal in New York, it had been under pressure from investors. The attendees at this meeting weren't the institutional investors it usually courts in Europe, but a group of US hedge funds that trade in distressed bonds.