Steve Bills

Buyout pros pride themselves on their ability not only to do deals and build companies but also to exit their investments in an efficient, profitable manner. Jerry L. Mills tells sister magazine Buyouts they might find it beneficial to offer some of that expertise to small businesses that could become deals for them in years to come.

The dividend recapitalization may be one of the most controversial techniques of realizing returns in the buyouts business, but Ted Thorp, co-head of the leveraged finance group at ORIX USA, says recaps are a useful tool in the sponsor’s toolkit.

Legislation that would ease leverage constraints on business development companies has started a rare public controversy within the BDC community, a group that lends to sponsor-backed businesses with annual revenue of less than $500 million.

Readers of peHUB aren't exactly twiddling their thumbs with too little work to do, but they do seem to have enough excess capacity to take on some more activity.

As you look at your workload today, are you running at half speed or full bore? Take our latest poll here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DealMakerPoll

Billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon is placing a big bet on mid-market lending by backing a new firm that is seeking to raise a $750 million debt fund aiming at the lower end of the middle market, two sources told sister magazine Buyouts.

Industry expertise may be less important to portfolio company management than the right kind of cultural fit, personnel consultants told sister magazine Buyouts.

Three out of five participants in peHUB's reader poll expect M&A activity to pick up from the slow conditions during the first quarter.

Deal activity has struggled so far in 2012. Is it a matter of deals getting pulled into the fourth quarter or a mismatch between what sellers demand and sellers will pay?

Corporations have led the way in addressing environmental, social and governance issues, but the private equity community is catching up, says Lauren Koopman, a director in the sustainable business solutions team at the global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.