Creative Earnings Calculations Seep Into Hot Private Debt Market
- Three-quarters of these companies tweak earnings, Lincoln says
- Engineering may tighten credit conditions, increase downgrades
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Rosy projections that help make a company’s earnings look better are creeping into the opaque private debt market, sparking alarm among some analysts worried that investors could be caught off-guard if the economy falters.
U.S. middle-market firms that rely on direct lenders for loans are increasingly massaging a key metric known as Ebitda -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- which could make the figure a misleading indicator of creditworthiness.