Private equity groups in $400bn of debt
By Lina Saigol and Martin Arnold
概要：PE巨头面临4000亿美元债务在未来5年需要归还。2005年到2007年，这些公司大量举债收购。这些PE已经开始想办法应对到期债务，通过再融资或债务出购等方式。而再融资需要发行高收益债券，但这一市场随着金融危机爆发实际已经关闭。但KKR、珀米拉相关负责人对解决这一问题持乐观态度。
The biggest private equity groups are sitting on a $400bn debt mountain that needs to be repaid over the next five years, putting the future of some of the largest buy-out deals in doubt.
Private equity firms raised large amounts of bank debt to buy companies between 2005 and 2007.
They face more than $21bn of debt maturities in the next two years, another $50bn in 2012, $115bn in 2013 and $192bn in 2014, according to data from S&P LCD.
With debt still in short supply and expensive, private equity groups are being forced to find new ways to pay down this debt ahead of schedule.
These include putting new equity into their portfolio companies, selling stakes in businesses to strategic buyers and buying back debt in their own companies at a discount.
They are also trying to persuade lenders to extend maturities on existing loans.
Henry Kravis, co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, said: “In every company we have that has debt, we consider either buying it in with excess cash flow where that is possible, refinancing it or effecting an exchange of the debt.”
The private equity group succeeded in pushing back the maturity date on loans coming due in HCA, the US hospital group that it took private for $33bn in one of the biggest buy-outs of the boom, by issuing $1.5bn of bonds earlier this year.
The urgent need to refinance the debt mountain is driving private equity groups to the high-yield bond market, which has been virtually closed since mid-2007 at the start of the credit crisis.
The level of corporate high-yield bond issuance in Europe and the US in the past three months rose to its highest level since the peak of the debt boom in mid-2007, according to data from Dealogic.
“We think in most cases we can refinance these companies and increase their earnings enough to reduce and refinance the debt,” said Tom Lister, co-managing partner of Permira.
“Private equity owners across the world have started early on this effort.”
