Buyout titans are benefiting as banks get less fearful about leveraged buyouts, Bloomberg News reported. When Leonard Green & Partners recently decided to buy a majority stake in SRS Distribution Inc., banks led by Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc sought loans and bonds to help finance the $3.6 billion buyout. Investors have so far been willing to increase debt for the building supply company to more than seven times a measure of earnings, a level that just a few years ago would have raised regulators’ eyebrows. Debt in leveraged buyouts is creeping above the six times level that regulators said in 2013 was potentially too risky, after commitments to private equity deals scorched banks during and after the crisis. The average company in an LBO had borrowings equal to 6.4 times earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization in 2018, according to Fitch Ratings. Last year it was 6.2 times EBITDA and in 2016, it was 5.9 times.
