"A short while ago we had a transatlantic takeover a client wanted to undertake. It wasn’t that big but we simply couldn’t get enough firepower to bridge the loan between the four core relationship banks. Strategic ambitions have to be changed," says an investment banker.
Another banking official says: "We have a client that approached us to help finance its share buy-back programme. We simply had to say: ‘No it’s not of enough strategic importance’."
It is not just M&A and share buy-backs that will be curtailed by the broken financial markets. BHP Billiton pulled out of its takeover of Rio Tinto because of the $55 billion of debt financing the acquisition entailed. It is capex, the debt that is used for dividend payments in the sponsor world – it is even the refinancing of outstanding bonds or existing corporate loan facilities...
