Article: Regulators Worry About Risk In Financing of Big Takeovers; Institutions Holding `Junk Bonds' Watched

Amid growing fear that U.S. corporations may not be able to repay the $300 billion they have borrowed for company buyouts and takeovers, state and federal regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of the financial institutions providing the financing for today's megadeals.

The regulators are concerned that insurance companies, pension funds, banks and savings and loans are putting too much of their money into high-yield, high-risk "junk bonds" and highly leveraged loans used to pay for risky corporate restructurings.

The takeover boom of the 1980s has led corporations to make more and bigger acquisitions, paying for their purchases almost entirely with borrowed money. Lenders have been ...

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