PE buyouts are back, bankrolled by Asian lenders

Buyouts are back in Asia, with leverage for PE deals increasingly coming from banks in the region, noted participants at the Borrowers and Investors Forum in Hong Kong yesterday. The financial crisis was once regarded as the end-game for large leveraged PE deals globally, as major investment banks were forced by regulators to reduce risk on their books. However, leveraged buyout activity lives on, albeit in different guises, such as PE-led privatisations of listed Chinese compan…