This is the inside story of private equity dealmaking.
Over the last 40 years, LBO fund managers have demonstrated that they are good at making money for themselves and their investors. But when one looks beneath the surface of the transactions they engineer, it is apparent that these deals can, at times, go spectacularly wrong.
Through 14 business stories, all emanating from the noughties' credit bubble and including headline-grabbing names like Caesars, Debenhams, EMI, Hertz, Seat Pagine Gialle and TXU, The Debt Trap shows how, via controversial practices like quick flips, repeat dividend recaps, heavy cost-cutting and asset-stripping, leveraged buyouts changed, for better or for worse, the way private companies are financed and managed today.
From technological disruption in the worlds of music recording and business-directory publishing to economic turbulence in the gambling, real estate and energy sectors, highly levered corporations are often incapable of handling market corrections when debt commitments start piling up. Behind the historical events and the financial empires erected by some of the elite private equity specialists, these 14 in-depth case studies examine how value-maximising techniques and a short-cut mentality can impact investment returns and portfolio assets.
Whether you are a PE practitioner, investor, business manager, academic or business student, you will find The Debt Trap to be an authoritative and fascinating account. Sebastien Canderle has more than 20 years of experience in the consulting and financial sectors in New York and London, including as an investor for various private equity firms. He is also the author of Private Equity's Public Distress, a book covering the impact of the financial crisis of 2008 on the buyout industry, and has been a contributor to several financial blogs as well as a business school lecturer in private equity.
"Private equity plays a crucial role in modern economies. What Sebastien Canderle explains is that the sector's performance depends on a very specific set of value triggers, first among them the optimal use of leverage. Get the mix wrong, however, and as the book's well-researched case studies demonstrate, even the most experienced fund managers can come to regret their foray into leveraged buyouts. The Debt Trap is filled with grounded analysis and is an authoritative book for PE practitioners and scholars alike." -Franklin Allen, Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Brevan Howard Centre director at Imperial College in London
"Written for an audience with a working knowledge of finance, The Debt Trap dissects the dealmaking that undergirds leveraged buyouts and provides an essential road map to the many ways that this has changed since the 2008 nancial crisis. Detailed examinations of high-profile buyouts demystify the excessively risky and opaque means - new and old - that private equity firms use to acquire companies. The Debt Trap should be required reading for the staff and trustees of institutional investors, and for professionals working at lending institutions, but the clear writing and compelling case studies make it appealing to a much wider audience." -Eileen Appelbaum, Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and author of Private Equity at Work
"Private equity has thrived on debt. Excessive debt can harm companies. This important book shows how and why thanks to a rich set of in-depth case studies. It is essential reading for practitioners and students of private equity." -Francois Degeorge, Senior Chair of the Swiss Finance Institute and Professor of Finance at the Universita della Svizzera italiana
"Sebastien Canderle has written a genuinely compelling book that raises crucial questions about modern-day PE investment practices. The Debt Trap is a thoughtful and stimulating work that helps to frame the debate on
