Headlines don’t seem to command as much attention as they once did, but the top item in the Wall Street Journal a week ago was welcome news to me. “Distressed Takeovers Soar,” (link requires registration) was the lead item on Tuesday. “It’s about time,” I thought.

The story cataloged a number of examples of opportunistic investors willing to take on marked-down assets in the expectation that they will have a solid return. “In many of these cases,” the Journal wrote, “debtholders aren’t concerned about getting monthly payments, but rather using their debt positions to angle for ownership.”

It happens that several metalcasting firms are gaining new investors, which is even more good news. Foundries and diecasters have been especially hard hit, victimized if you will, by the global recession.

One of those firms on the brink of rescue is Intermet. It has been in bankruptcy reorganization for over a year, but an ongoing auction of its assets apparently guiding it into the hands of Cerion LLC. Cerion is the holding company owned by a private equity group, Revstone Industries, which earlier this summer consolidated ownership of the Contech nonferrous diecasting group. The investors obviously want to be in the metalcasting business, which is another good signal.

The Journal report studies the situation of distressed asset sales with a cynical tone, as though the firms taking the money are victims. Well, of course, they are “victims” of bad luck, bad decisions, poor management, poor market conditions, some unfair foreign competition, some unforgiving government regulations, and many other things.

But, they are not victims of their new investors. These investors are businessmen. They’re doing a service for the distressed companies, and for the economy generally. They’re helping to reestablish value in markets where worth has been impossible to determine. They’re providing the foundation for starting over.