Private equity deals less leveraged: financier

April 7 - Reuters - Private equity firms are being forced to put more equity into their portfolio companies as the days of excessive leveraging appear to be over, a private equity financier said.

Private equity companies who once could borrow as much as 90 percent of the enterprise value of a company, leaving equity to represent a mere 10 percent, are now forced to put as much as half of a company's worth in equity, Buchan Scott, a partner at Duke Street Capital, said at the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit in London.

"We'll see private equity companies having to put more money into their companies," Scott said. "It's definitely increasing." Read More.