Gillian Tan, Columnist

Don't Fret About Buyouts Yet

The buyout firm's revised deal with Symantec could lead to tougher lending standards.

January 20, 2016 at 8:45 PM UTC

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

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Believe it or not, there is a silver lining in the fact that Carlyle Group slashed its purchase price for Symantec's data-storage business, Veritas.

At first glance, the situation looks bleak: Strained credit markets mean banks still face hundreds of millions in potential losses from their upcoming sale of the more than $4.7 billion in debt that's financing the revised deal, which was 2015's largest leveraged buyout. And Symantec shares extended their slump as investors accepted that the company will now receive $1 billion less than expected, meaning less firepower for future acquisitions or share buybacks.