PE Deals of the Year
PAI Partners: Yoplait   Onex: Emergency Medical Services   Apollo: Hughes Communications   Silver Lake: Skype   El Paso   Castle-Harlan: Perkins & Marie Callender's   Midocean: Sbarro   Sun Capital: Friendly Ice Cream   Blackstone et al.: Travelport   Bain: Keystone Automotive  The year in PE bankruptcies  Other notable PE exits

The scourge of Chapter 11 touched fewer private equity-backed companies (including European assets) last year despite the slow economic recovery. Since 2009, when 100 companies fell victim to the Great Recession, the numbers have been improving. By The Deal magazine's reckoning, some 42 companies with private equity money rolled into bankruptcy court (see table, page 43), lower than the 2010 tally of 69. Last year's total was commensurate with the level in 2008, when the global financial crisis began.

The precise amount of equity that evaporated is, as always, difficult to ascertain. The vast majority of investments involved in the list for 2011 were not disclosed.

One glaring exception was Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd.'s investment in British music company EMI Group Ltd., estimated at north of $2.5 billion and said to be as much as $2.7 billion. EMI, owned by Guy Hands' London firm, fell into Citigroup Inc.'s hands Feb. 1, 2011, in an asset grab by the big bank. Maltby Investments Ltd., EMI's London holding company, was placed in a prepackaged administration to execute the recapitalization under Citigroup.

Terra Firma's and Guy Hands' losses dwarfed all others'. At $2.7 billion the amount would be roughly equal to the rest of the potential equity losses put together for the year. The largest U.S. loss was $435 million, incurred by Cerberus Capital Management LP from paper producer NewPage Corp. of Miamisburg, Ohio, a company that struggled for a long time under its debt structure.

There were also repeat offenders. Anchor Blue Inc., a Corona, Calif., casual-clothing retailer, first filed in May 2009. The second, HomeForm Group Ltd., a U.K. home improvement retailer, went into administration in 2007. Both were owned by Sun Capital Partners Inc. and affiliates. The private equity turnaround specialist put a total of five portfolio companies into Chapter 11, more than any other PE firm.