Practice

LBO: Should you finance this deal?

Analyze a realistic LBO case. Warning: not all data is directly usable.

PE / LBOIntermediateCalculation
Your PE fund is evaluating the acquisition of **MécaPro**, an automotive subcontractor. The seller presents an EBITDA of €35M, but you identify €5M of exceptional restructuring costs that inflated EBITDA this year. Management estimates that a normalized EBITDA of **€30M** is more representative. Banks offer leverage of **4.5x normalized EBITDA** at a rate of 5.5%. The seller is asking for a multiple of **7x normalized EBITDA**. The fund targets a **minimum IRR of 20%** over 5 years.
Given
Presented EBITDA35 M€
Exceptional costs included5 M€
Proposed leverage (x norm. EBITDA)4.5 x
Asking multiple (x norm. EBITDA)7 x
Debt rate5.5 %
Question 1/3

Which EBITDA should you use to structure the deal? (trap: it's NOT €35M)

M€
0/3