We use a proprietary dataset to explore (i) the financial covenant structure and (ii) the determinants of their restrictiveness in leveraged buyouts. With respect to (i) we find that the covenant structure is more standardized in sponsored than in non-sponsored loans: the former show less...

In this paper we investigate the effects of debt usage on (risk-adjusted) equity returns in private equity-backed buyout transactions. We use a proprietary data set of more than 700 realized European and North American buyouts acquired between 1990 and 2006 to empirically assess theoretical...

This paper investigates the relationship between leverage and returns in private equity buyout transactions. In contrast to the predictions of traditional capital structure theory, we find that transactions financed with large amounts of debt are associated higher transaction prices and lower...