Competitors need not apply

摘要

Staffing firm on assignment has joined a growing list of US companies that are banning rivals and often their private equity owners from participating in their leveraged loans by adding them to a blacklist to stop them from gaining access to private information. The borrower barred 12 firms including Competitors insight global and select staffing service from joining a recent US$975m leveraged loan financing backing its acquisition of Creative Circle, which was arranged by Wells Fargo. The leveraged loan market is private and blacklists have been applied since around the late 1990s, increasing in use following the credit crisis, to stop rival companies and private equity firms from gaining access to potentially commercially sensitive information. Borrowers also use blacklists to block lenders, such as distressed debt investors that have previously been difficult, from joining deals.