Investors are already betting that some of the biggest deals may collapse, or at least be renegotiated, New York Times reports.
For example, shares of the SLM Corporation, the parent of the student lender Sallie Mae, are 19.5 percent below the price that a consortium of buyout firms and banks had agreed to pay.
Private equity executives acknowledge that they are studying the possibility for dozens of deals. Transactions involving buyouts of finance companies or real estate are considered prime targets for renegotiation talks. Divestitures of divisions could also come under fire.
Private equity firms are being pushed to rethink deals by the banks that had committed to loan the money and are now expected to rack up billions in losses by selling the debt at a fraction of what they had planned.