Buyout fees: Buyout bills

Investors in buyout funds are used to paying large fees to the firms that manage their money. But they’re increasingly disgruntled with the advisory fees charged by private equity outfits for arranging deals. It’s easy to see why. Large acquisitions don’t require that much more work than smaller ones. So when investment banks advise on mega takeovers, their clients force them to ratchet down their fees as a percentage of the deal size. Equity Office Properties was valued at $39bn, including deb...