After two years of rapid-fire deal making, private equity firms are finding it harder to get the job done.
Some 15 to 20 debt offerings — analysts’ estimates vary — have been modified or postponed as anxious investors have demanded better terms for high-yield loans and bonds, the lifeblood of the leveraged buyout. Private equity firms have had to raise interest rates and sweeten the repayment — or risk having to withdraw the offerings entirely.
“It’s the issuers who are over a barrel right now,” said Justin B. Monteith, an analyst with the research firm KDP Investment Advisors. “The market could go lower as people see how far they can push the issuers.”
