Mezzanine Debt

Mezzanine debt is a relatively high-yielding class of coupon-paying relatively long-tenor unsecured subordinated debt that ranks above equity and deeply subordinated junior debt and below senior unsecured debt in a company’s capital structure. In the event of insolvency, mezzanine creditors sit fairly low in the creditor repayment hierarchy. Mezzanine debt is sometimes referred to as preferred equity. For debt issuers that have exhausted their ability to access additional senior debt from lenders and investors, mezzanine debt can play a useful role in facilitating access to additional financing to finance growth or for corporate recapitalisations and restructurings, LBOs, and acquisition financing. Mezzanine debt can have elements of debt and equity; the latter in the form of warrants giving mezzanine debtholders equity conversion rights if certain triggers are hit.