Dividend Loans for Buyout Firms in Europe Double to $5.5 Billion

Charterhouse Capital Partners, KKR & Co. and other private-equity companies are raising the most loans to pay themselves dividends from their European corporate investments in more than five years.

Companies owned by the buyout firms borrowed 4.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion) for payouts this year, more than double the 1.8 billion euros raised in 2012 and higher than any year since 2008, according to data compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ Leveraged Commentary and Data. Visma Group, a Norwegian software maker majority-owned by KKR, increased its loans to 8.1 billion kroner ($1.39 billion) to help fund a shareholder payment while U.K. retailer Card Factory Ltd. is seeking a 165 million-pound ($265 million) term loan for a dividend to Charterhouse, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.