Leveraged buyout groups refinance record debt - FT.com

“All the businesses that lent themselves to be refinanced have been refinanced given the unprecedented market conditions driven by QE,” Matteo Canonaco, head of Financial Sponsors coverage at HSBC, said. “The market has grown addicted to QE and is watching closely the moves of the Fed as any form of exit takes us into uncharted territory.”

Private equity groups have sought to reassure investors they have put protections in place. Carlyle has about 60 per cent of its US companies’ debt and about three quarters of its European portfolio’s debt “at fixed rates or hedged”, co-founder Bill Conway said in July. New York-based rival KKR has about 87 per cent of its portfolio “either fixed or swapped to fixed” rates, Scott Nuttall, KKR’s head of capital and asset management, said that same month.

Leveraged buyout groups refinance record debt - FT.com