An aggressive type of financing that typified the excesses of the buyout boom has started to re-emerge in the market, potentially stoking up problems for the corporate sector in the years ahead, according to bankers.
So-called PIK, or payment-in-kind, notes and loans came to prominence amid the height of the buyout frenzy two years ago, but since have been all but banished from the markets in the wake of the credit crisis. Now PIKs are making a comeback as companies, some private equity-owned, face funding pressure.