LBO model questions

Hey everybody,

as someone who's currently preparing for his PE interviews I have a couple of simple questions regarding building lbo models I hope you guys can help me answer:

  1. How do I make the assumption what kind of loans I need and especially, when do I need to include mezzanine in my model? I have a case study coming up and wondered whether I could just source the debt from one TLA covering all debt or whether there is some way I need to split the debt into TLA, TLB and/or mezzanine.

  2. Is there a guideline how much minimum cash one should preserve throught the investment period?

  3. Is there a guideline how high M&A/transaction fees usually are? (e.g., 2% of offer value)

Your help is much appreciated!

Many thanks, Andy

2 Comments
 

1) Figure 5-6x total leverage as a general guide, obviously industry dependent. Split is generally 4x bank / 2x HY (or whatever types of debt your using). Anything over that would be mezz but most LBOs won't have a mezz portion necessarily.

2) No, this is industry specific and will usually be given to you are can be inferred from the information given to you.

3) This again is something that will either be given to you or can be ignored.

 

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