DocuSign Inc (DOCU)

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Private Credit Duels With Banks for $8 Billion DocuSign LBO Debt
John Sage, Silas Brown and Lisa Lee
Mon, January 22, 2024 at 8:29 AM MST·1 min read

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/private-credit-duels-banks-8-152938833.html

(Bloomberg) -- Direct lenders are vying with banks to finance a potential buyout of DocuSign Inc. with a debt package totaling as much as $8 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman are jockeying to acquire the electronic signature platform, though the discussions are ongoing and details may change, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a private transaction.

Representatives for DocuSign, Bain and Hellman & Friedman declined to comment. Details about the potential take-private deal were reported earlier by Reuters.

The proposed loan would be the largest ever direct-lending deal by roughly $3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and comes at a time when the competition between banks and direct lenders is reaching a fever pitch.

Conditions in the broadly-syndicated loan and junk-bond markets — where private equity firms have traditionally looked to finance multi billion-dollar buyouts — have improved in recent months, in part due to mounting speculation the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle is over. That could make a debt package arranged by banks more attractive compared to private credit and increase the rivalry between the two sets of lenders.

The revival means more competition in the $1.6 trillion private credit market, which boomed over the past 18 months as soaring rates and hung debt made banks cautious about underwriting fresh leveraged buyouts.

DocuSign has a market capitalization of nearly $13 billion and went public in 2018.