The securitisation engine has moved on to private equity. With the initial public offering as the natural outcome for private equity long since discredited, it’s now through successive leveraged buyouts (LBOs) that firms change hands. The increased debt burden prompts credit downgrades and there is a need to look at alternative forms of finance post-LBO. A recent survey of European private equity houses by Demica, a firm that specialises in trade receivables securitisation, found that while nearly 12% of LBO deals currently involve securitisation, the proportion is expected to rise to 16% by end of 2006.