People in glass houses ..

Private equity firms buying back the debt that supports their own deals has recently come in for criticism. Europe's trade group for the syndicated loan market, the London-based Loan Market Association, is expected to propose a series of measures that would bar private equity firms from such practices. Several recent reports suggest that the association will attempt to close these so-called 'lending loopholes' which are perceived to give private equity firms an unfair advantage when it comes to buying into and then restructuring the debt that supports their own portfolio companies. Other disapproval seems to rest on a curious politics-of-envy position which criticises private equity firms for buying the debt 'on the cheap' in order to make a profit