Private-Equity Firms’ Exit Tactics Risk Curbing Fees for Banks

  • Bain, Cinven and Carlyle add so-called portability to deals
  • The mechanism lets a buyer lock a firm’s current debt in place

Techem's new owners are private equity firm TPG and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

Source: Techem
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Banks risk missing out on lucrative underwriting fees on two of the biggest buyout deals in the market as private-equity firms tweak debt terms mid-way through the sales process.

The practice of introducing portability into deals locks a company’s old borrowing in place and avoids the situation where a sale triggers change-of-control provisions that require a buyer to immediately refinance or pay off debt.