Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, 13. February 2019. After years of continous growth, the German LBO market has dipped for the first time since the financial crisis ended. The number of transactions completed fell in the past year to 89, compared with 103 in 2017 – a decline of almost 15 percent. By contrast, alternative financiers steadfastly continued their success story in 2018 and bucked the bank GCA Altium, which regularly tracks leveraged-buyout financings with a credit volume of between €20 million and €500 million, recorded a share of almost half of the German LBO market for debt funds for the whole 2018: in comparison to 2017, when they achieved a 35 percent share, this marks another clear increase, to 48 percent. Of the 89 transactions in 2018, debt funds successfully completed 43 transactions. The market share of the banks was still 65 percent in 2017 and has now shrunk to 52 percent, with 46 transactions.
