For much of the past 12 months, it appeared that the major story of the past three years would again be growth. As Ian Fitzgerald, Managing Director and Head of Loan Syndicate at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, observes, within the lending markets as a whole, the main driver over this period was private equity driven leveraged buy-out/management buy-out (LBO/MBO) activity. Since 2004 growth in this type of lending went from 20% of total European market lending to a point where, mid-way through 2007 it represented 35% of the total market.
