WSJ says some LBOs may be in trouble (CCU, BCE)

Posted Jan 23rd 2008 7:12AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Deals, Clear Channel Commun (CCU)

Someone had to put together a list of LBOs that may fall apart because the stock markets are down. Leave it to the editors of The Wall Street Journal.

Making the hit list are Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU), Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) and BCE (NYSE: BCE).

The newspaper is stating the obvious. The market already knows the deals are unlikely to close. BCE shares trade at $34, down from a 52-week high of $44.59.

The by-products of these problems are two-fold. The first is that LBO firms have obligations to close some of these deals. That means that break-up fees or lawsuits may be on the way. Boards at these companies may have little choice if their shareholders are billions of dollars underwater.

The other factor is that trust in LBO firms will probably fall to all-time lows with public companies. Whatever happened to the "our word is our bond" stuff?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Tags: ADS, Alliance Data, AllianceData, BCE, ccu, inthenews