Bloomberg takes a look at KKR's $1.8 billion deal for Oriental Brewery Co., which was sold by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and notes a twist: The seller will have an option to buy back the asset after five years, given certain conditions, at 11 times EBITDA. The deal was struck at a multiple of 8 or 9. "The technique may be repeated by companies wanting to raise cash from assets they're reluctant to sell, industry executives said."

While this may raise hopes that more deals may be in the offing for top private equity firms, I'd be a little skeptical, if only because of the improving debt and equity issuance climate right now (for those that really want to keep the asset). All in all, however, you would have to think that we'll see the pace of deals bounce off of its historic lows. There's a lot of money that has to be deployed by the top private equity firms.

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- here's the article

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