Today's mix: mostly equity, most of the time

According to a recent survey from the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Sponsor Backed Going Private Transactions, the debt to equity ratio of today's public to private deals reflect just how dry the financing markets are these days.

The statistics below were derived from surveying 99 public to private deals of target companies in the US (63), Europe (23) and Asia (13) with an enterprise value of at least $250 million, announced between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007. The survey used July 3rd of last year to distinguish between pre- and post-crunch eras, and as these charts demonstrate, the differences in the debt to equity ratios is stark. In the US for example, two of the smaller post-credit transactions were financed with 100 percent equity.