Euro LBO volumes reach record levels

European leveraged loans supporting buyouts reached a total of US$73,981m in 2004, see below. The total for the Q4 reached US$14,333m. Topping this table in 2004 was Barclays Capital having arranged total proceeds of US$10,386m. Barclays Capital is also winner of EVCJ’s LBO debt provider of the year most notably for its role as lead and sole arranger in CVC and Permira’s £1.75bn acquisition of the Automobile Association for which the bank arranged a £1.3bn debt package. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) comes a close second, having arranged US$10,339m in 2004. RBS was crowned EVCJ’s mid-market debt provider of the year for 2004. The award recognised the bank’s support of the many leveraged financings it brought to market across Europe during 2004 and in particular its range of sectors and European geographic reach through these transactions.

JP Morgan comes third, having arranged US$4,939.3m. Included in this amount was the debt arranged for Apax and Cinven’s €2.075bn mega VNU World Directories LBO.

The running order was much the same for mezzanine backing European LBOs (excluding the independent mezzanine providers). The total arranged in 2004 reached US$9,734.1m, with US$3,355m arranged in the Q4. Barclays Capital again came top, having arranged total proceeds of US$1,764.1m, including the AA deal.

Barclays was also the sole arranger for Montagu Private Equity’s £146m secondary buyout of the Survitec Group for which the bank arranged a £15m mezzanine tranche. And in the final quarter, the bank arranged the financing for Terra Firma’s acquisitions of the Odeon and United Cinema International (UCI) cinema chains.

Royal Bank of Scotland came second, having arranged US$1,510.5m in 2004, but fell to third place for the Q4, when the bank arranged US$357.4m and was beaten by JP Morgan, which arranged US$510.9m. JP Morgan managed to pip RBS to second place most notably for its involvement in Apax and Cinven’s VNU transaction, Blackstone’s secondary buyout of Gerresheimer Glas and Montagu Private Equity’s LBO of Stabilus for which it arranged US$3,823m, US$3,229m and US$2,741m respectively.