The first wave of highly leveraged transactions (HLTs) also known as leveraged buyouts (LBOs) began in the late 1980s. Fewer transactions occurred in the 1990's after a number of companies in the first wave failed when the economy slowed down. More recently, the driving force behind levered...

By analyzing actual cash flows in comparison with enterprise values (market capitalization plus debt minus cash) we document that the market dramatically undervalues firms. The findings suggest that the equity market appears to have an extraordinarily high discount rate which negates future...