Highly leveraged buyouts (LBOs) of former state owned telecoms operators by private equity groups have occurred in a number of countries in recent years. This paper examines the case of Eircom in Ireland which has experienced five changes in ownership since full privatisation in 1999, two of...

Credit default swap (CDS) and equity options markets often experience abnormal swings prior to the announcement of negative credit news. Option prices reveal information about such forthcoming adverse events at least as early as credit spreads, except for negative earnings announcements. Prior...

This study investigates the transition from being a listed company with a dispersed ownership structure to being a privately held company with a concentrated ownership structure. We consider a sample of private equity backed portfolio companies to evaluate the consequences of the corporate...

We are able to shed light on the black box of restructuring tools private equity investors use to improve the operational performance of their portfolio companies. By building on previous work considering performance evaluation of PE backed companies, we analyze whether private equity improves...

Although banks are at the center of systemic risk, there are other institutions that contribute to it. With the publication of the leveraged lending guideline in March 2013, the U.S. regulators show that they are especially worried about the private equity firms with their high-risk deals. Given...

Although private equity firms are often criticized for layoffs, little evidence exists regarding which employees lose their jobs and why. We argue that explanations for the job polarization process can also explain layoffs after buyouts. Buyouts reduce agency problems, which triggers automation,...