Taking The L Out Of the LBO

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July 22 saw UK based private equity (PE) firm Apax Partners agree to buy US personal finance data provider Bankrate for US$571mn, in one of the largest acquisitions by a PE investor in the year to date. Apax will pay US$28.50 a share for Florida- based Bankrate, a roughly 18% premium to the firm's 10 day trading average. Even more significant than the size of the transaction, however, is the fact that London-based Apax will fund the deal purely through cash, entirely eschewing the use of leverage that lay at the center of the PE model during the boom years,