Previ, 's pension fundmanager for its workers' retirement savings, plans to sell about 2 billion Brazilianreais of nonperforming real-estate loans, Bloomberg News reported, citing "threepeople familiar with the plan."

The pensionfund, which is the largest in the country, has reportedly contacted investors tomeasure their appetite for the distressed loans, the unnamed sources said. Theyadded that the loan sale could happen at the end of the year.

"We'veseen an increasing number of investors looking at non-performing loans in Brazil,"distressed loan investor Salvatore Milanese told Bloomberg. "It is a marketthat is growing fast. That ends up boosting the interest of sellers that had neverconsidered it as an option before."

The ratio ofnonperforming loans in Brazil hit 5.9% of total loans in May, up 20 basis pointsfrom April to reach a new record high,data from Banco Central do Brasilshowed.

As of July 12, US$1 was equivalent to 3.28 Brazilianreais.