{"id":109355,"date":"2023-08-02T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T15:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=109355"},"modified":"2023-08-03T09:06:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T13:06:42","slug":"what-is-an-lbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-an-lbo\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is an LBO? The Takeover of a Company, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is an LBO? Are LBOs considered hostile in the business industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A leveraged buyout (LBO) is when a group of executives makes a company private by buying all of the company&#8217;s stock. There&#8217;s still much debate on whether a leveraged buy-out is considered a hostile takeover of a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about LBOs, according to <em>Barbarians at the Gate<\/em> by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-basics-leveraged-buyouts\"><strong>The Basics: Leveraged Buyouts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What is an LBO? Burrough and Helyar focus more on the drama of the RJR Nabisco buyout than on the mechanics of it, but they do explain LBOs in passing. In a typical leveraged buyout, <strong>a team of executives takes the company private, <\/strong>usually in order to gain a greater share of company profits, as we\u2019ll elaborate on shortly.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Shortform Background: Key Business Terms<\/strong> There are some key business terms that are helpful to understand before we dive into the explanation of the LBO process:<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indeed.com\/career-advice\/career-development\/what-is-a-stockholder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Stockholders<\/strong><\/a><strong>:<\/strong> Publicly traded companies are owned by stockholders, with shares of stock equating to shares of ownership. Sometimes stockholders have the opportunity to vote on key issues affecting the company, but usually they have no <em>direct<\/em> say in how the company is run, even though they own part of it.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/b\/boardofdirectors.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Board of Directors<\/strong><\/a><strong>: <\/strong>A company\u2019s board of directors acts as representatives of the stockholders. They govern the company at the highest level but generally are not involved in its day-to-day operations.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masterclass.com\/articles\/leadership-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Management Team<\/strong><\/a><strong>: <\/strong>A team of corporate executives, typically led by a CEO, actively runs the company, directing day-to-day business operations. They report to the board of directors.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-lbo-process\"><strong>The LBO Process<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In an LBO, the management team arranges to buy <em>all<\/em> the company\u2019s stock at a price agreed upon by the company\u2019s board of directors. They purchase the stock<strong> <\/strong>using primarily borrowed money and use the company (and its assets) as collateral for the loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, an LBO removes a company\u2019s stock from the stock market and replaces its board of directors with a new board representing the company\u2019s new owners. In principle, the new board could just be the management team, who would then be their own bosses. But in practice, the management team almost always partners with a financial consulting company, which usually acquires a controlling share of ownership in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to coordinating the transaction, the consulting company brings its own financial resources to the table. In most cases, partnering with a financial company is the only way the management team can acquire sufficient credit to borrow enough money for the LBO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, as the authors point out, LBOs are not a hostile business maneuver: The management team and its financial partners make an offer to the company\u2019s board of directors. The <strong>LBO only happens if the board of directors agrees to sell the company<\/strong> to them on behalf of the shareholders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Are LBOs Hostile or Not?<\/strong><br><br>There are differences of opinion about whether LBOs should be classified as a hostile takeover mechanism. In the form that Burrough and Helyar describe, LBOs aren\u2019t hostile because a group internal to the company organizes the LBO and the board of directors approves it.&nbsp;<br>Other sources that describe LBOs similarly tend to draw the same conclusion, even arguing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/b\/buyout.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LBOs are often used as a tactic to <em>avoid<\/em> a hostile takeover<\/a>. This works because a hostile takeover often involves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/hostile_takeover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one company buying up more than 50% of the target company\u2019s stock, giving them a controlling interest<\/a>. LBOs eliminate the risk of this happening because they pull the company\u2019s stock off the market.<br><br>But others <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/articles\/markets\/111015\/10-most-famous-leveraged-buyouts.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">identify LBOs as a hostile takeover method<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/l\/leveragedbuyout.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">describe LBOs more broadly<\/a> as any buyout in which the assets of the company are put up as collateral to borrow the money to purchase it. So someone outside the company approaching the board with an LBO offer without the support of the company\u2019s management would still meet the more general definition of an LBO, while also following the normal pattern of a hostile takeover.<br><br>It\u2019s worth noting that hostile LBOs tend to be riskier because they lack the partnership between the management team and the financial backers who are buying the company.&nbsp; Without the management team on board, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/l\/leveragedbuyout.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transition to new ownership (and potentially new management) will likely be more disruptive <\/a>to company operations. And without the management team\u2019s inside knowledge of the company\u2019s financial situation, there\u2019s more uncertainty about how much the company is really worth.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-motives-for-lbos\"><strong>Motives for LBOs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Why would a company\u2019s executives prefer to share ownership of the company with a financial consulting firm and have a huge loan to pay off instead of having publicly traded stock? Burrough and Helyar give two reasons, both of which revolve around making more money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First and foremost, they say LBOs became popular in the 1980s because they allowed executives to dramatically <strong>increase their own income from corporate dividends<\/strong>\u2014the share of corporate profits that a company pays to its shareholders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, interest payments on bank loans are deductible from corporate taxes, while dividends paid to stockholders are not. Depending on interest rates and tax rates, this sometimes produces substantial savings for the company after the LBO, increasing profits.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burrough and Helyar also recount how the financial consulting firms that facilitate LBOs actively try to sell CEOs on these advantages. They do this because they profit from up-front fees for their financial services, as well as dividends on their share of ownership in the company once the LBO is completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-junk-bonds\"><strong>Junk Bonds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Burrough and Helyar go on to explain how <strong>finance companies that facilitate LBOs often raise large amounts of money by selling what the authors call \u201cjunk bonds,\u201d<\/strong> or pay-in-kind (PIK) securities. These are high-interest bonds that pay the interest on the bonds in the form of more of the same kind of bonds, rather than in cash.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-intelligent-investor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Intelligent Investor<\/em><\/a>, Benjamin Graham defines \u201cjunk\u201d bonds more broadly as bonds that must <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-intelligent-investor\/chapter-7#second-grade-bonds-junk-bonds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pay high interest rates to attract buyers because there is a significant risk <\/a>that the company issuing them might run out of money and default on its bonds. He doesn\u2019t stipulate that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/junk-rated-bonds\/\">junk bonds<\/a> would be pay-in-kind.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is an LBO? Are LBOs considered hostile in the business industry? A leveraged buyout (LBO) is when a group of executives makes a company private by buying all of the company&#8217;s stock. There&#8217;s still much debate on whether a leveraged buy-out is considered a hostile takeover of a company. Read more about LBOs, according to Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":76967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,81,31],"tags":[1113],"class_list":["post-109355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-economics","category-money","tag-barbarians-at-the-gate","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is an LBO? 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