LBO debt: Wake-up call

Europe’s dormant leveraged loan market has been nudged from its slumber. Banks have finally agreed to sell two big slugs of debt used to finance KKR’s leveraged buyout of Alliance Boots, the UK pharmacy chain owner. A third tranche may yet make it out the door, too. It has taken a year, but the eight banks look set to unload about £2.6bn of loans out of the original £9bn used to finance the deal. Goldman Sachs’ mezzanine fund is paying cash for more than £600m of second-lien loans at 85 pence on...